just read that Mattel's Barbie Girls an immersive brand virtual world, has signed up three million members in the first 2 months, and they’re getting around 50,000 new sign ups a day.
anyone else still doubting the transformation of the web from a 2d browser experience to a 3d immersive one? the only question now is how long?...
begins with but a single step.
Just back from an enjoyable week in the sun at Dionysos canyon in the mountains overlooking Kumlubük bay in Turkey.
Highly recommended if you want a real away from it all holiday.
I was all set to start a flickr page and post my snaps when I was struck by the realisation...
I AM A FAT B'STARD.
I cannot possibly share the pics of my semi-naked wobbling.
Hence forth a portion of this journal will now be given over to the phenomenon known as fatblogging. I'll do the first weigh-in tonight and each Monday will be tracking my progress. Need to work out a plan and some targets but today is offically the start of the new me. Wish me luck...
The biggest marketing story of the week is, of course, the new Prince album 'Planet Earth' which was given away free with the Mail on Sunday in the UK this weekend.
Quote from his purpleness “It’s direct marketing and I don’t have to be in the speculation business of the record industry, which is going through a lot of tumultuous times right now,”
Prince has been a thorn in the record industry's side since probably day 1. Among the most famous incidents being when he went on 'strike' in 1994 in a dispute with Warners over publishing rights and appeared with 'Slave' written on his face for a number of months.
There will be plenty written and discussed over the implications for the retail end of the record industry - its not harming the artist much as the sell out tour indicates. Let's not forget, hardcore Prince fans are going go and buy another copy when the official release happens. It's worked as a re-awakening for lapsed fans like myself. I've listened a couple of times now and ive liked the organic band-y sound, although Prince has been off my radar for a few years anyway so maybe thats not a new development.
One question though. I wonder how it ended up going out with Britains most reactionary right-wing paper rather than . say, the Observer - which does a monthly music pull out a la Mojo or Q - which would seem to me to be a more appropriate partner? Highest bidder I suppose, but that took a little bit of the shine off a real innovation, for me.
Had an interesting email exchange with legendary punk agitator, ex-Clash and Special AKA manager Bernard Rhodes the other day.
I'd contacted Bernard with some questions after checking out his website, where BR rails against all and sundry and laments at the shallow and vacuous nature of contemporary popular culture.
I politely suggested to BR that he might like to consider opening up the site into a more bloggy format to allow readers to comment and perhaps link up with like-minded readers - thus enabling a conversation and a community to see each other, around the content.
I also encouraged BR to think about new-ish things like Twitter (when you check out his stuff i'm sure you'll agree he has enough short soundbites to fit the format).
Well, BR responded indirectly via his contact page by explaining he has no plans to be getting involved in social media as it is the domain of 'ranters, bullshitters and timewasters'.
That's his take. Obviously it's early days in this space so we'll see where it lands.
I still think BR has some pretty interesting views which would get some debate going for sure but it appears he's not ready just yet.
Thats a shame I think, if this forum had been around for some of BR's influences such as Guy Debord.
I think there would have been some interesting ideas reaching out further than they did in their time.
I wonder what Malcolm is up to...
If the combined egos of the pop glitterati on stage at live earth could be harnessed to generate electricity we'd have no energy problems for the foreseeable future.
Where was Jarvis when we needed him? Madonna's performance (put your hands together to save the planet...?) was up there with Jacko's legendary Brits self deification from 10 years ago. I really though we were past that. Politics and pop does mix when theres something at the core, but what exactly were this lot saying about anything? Pussycat Dolls? I mean, come on. The funniest thing was the ticker tape thing at the back of the stage typing out loft insulation tips while Genesis hobbled around the stage looking like a bunch of cowboy builders.
Met up with a couple of twitter pals at the chinwag party, Artful Dodger Sam and Stoke City fan Will. Its great to put faces to names and a few beers and hot dogs were quaffed. I also managed to have a chat to Luke Razzell, who I'd seen speaking at the last Chiwag live, and his girlfriend Charla.
We've now facebooked up and I'm hoping to be able to contribute to his new Blogfriends project, if I can.
I was also introduced to zeroinfluencer aka Dave. Dave is involved in one of the most interesting developments in tv for a while, Where are the Joneses?. Its a wiki based tv show where the plot and script etc are written by the 'community'. Didn't get a chance to really have a proper blether but I'm hoping that will happen sometime soon. Thanks to Chinwag for bringing people together, again.
Had an interesting conversation today around Nike and adidas, both brands trying to 'own' football (soccerball, for my US chums). With Euro 2008 fast approaching the battle will become even more fierce.
Nike's Shooting Gallery ups the ante although some of the invitation clips smell a bit phony to me...;)
At the end of the day (gratuitous football cliche ole) I'm on the adidas side, if only because the badge adorned the shirts of Willie Miller and co on the greatest night in the history of football - May 11th 1983
Nike just havent earned it yet.
Walking down Commercial Road about half an hour ago I came across one of the last outposts of full on interruption marketing. An old dosser approached me, I expected the usual 'have you got 10p for a cup of tea' routine. But no.
This fella has obviously had a think about it. With interruption strategies your message has to really cut through the clutter to get my attention and be highly targeted. Bear in mind that round E1 way there are plenty city boys with there 100k bonuses burning holes in their pocket (i'm not one of them unfortunately). His pitch was as follows. 'Excuse me mate, have you got a spare couple of hundred quid for some hard drugs and kinky sex?' I gave him 50p.
Of course, if he collared me tomorrow with the same story I might not be so inclined.
But as a one off interuption which made me pay attention and gave me a wee laugh it worked.
Popped down to check this out last night. Details of the panel are here.
Interestingly enough there were no representatives from any of the big social network 'providers' (is that the right word) ie Myspace, facebook. Apparently they were invited to contribute but declined on the basis of a reluctance to be thrown into the 'bear pit'. A bit poor in my view as probably around 75% of the audience were advocates and active participants in at least one of the popular tools around.
There were the usual topics discussed - stalking, myspace riots etc but not really any great insights to be fair. I enjoyed the comments of James Cherkoff and will be checking out his modern marketing blog, and had some sympathy for identitologist, Luke Razzell who got a bit of stage fright at the beginning and then just got into his stride as the session came to a close.
The funniest thing, though, was a generally angry Tim Ireland from bloggereads who landed some new terms on me, 'sockpuppets' and 'astroturfing'. I'll not bother explaining them here, look them up if your interested.
Tim's pearls of wisdom/tales from the darkside included the revelation that politicians and their lackeys are using social media outlets to try and galvanise support for dubious policies and generally manipulate the conversation on blogs by the use of multiple identities and faking grass roots support (there, Ive given away the astroturfing reference'). as he gazed upon the audience with a face that begged 'can you believe this?' I found myself contemplating...politicians manipulating media to further there own dubious ends, and hoodwinking the populace?
surely not. The words no shit and sherlock came to mind.
Notably no mentions of Twitter/Jaiku (although a good few of the audience could be seen feverishly twittering updates on their phones) and ning (this is a relatively new one to me, but after an hour or so fiddling with it yesterday it seems potentially a bit of a bad apple...dunno).
The main take-out was, of course, be careful what you post out there because its up there forever and might come back to bite you. And there was a general agreement that, yes -there is a dark side to social media but likewise there is a dark side to any interaction between humans virtual or otherwise.
I'll definitely be checking out, and no doubt commenting on, these chinwag events in the future. Next time I'll aslo try and do a bit more real life networking, I was on my jack last night so didn't mingle that much. Big thanks to Thayer for the invitation and baptism into the chinwag network.
dear south west trains,
I hope you've got your google alerts on cos I'd like you to read this.
This morning I tried to renew my weekly ticket (in the same manner Ive done for the past 2 and a half years that ive been commuting with them) only to be told by the guard on the train that they will no longer renew tickets on the train and I am liable for a penalty fare plus a non-refundable single journey ticket to get to Waterloo, where I then had to q for 20mins to get my weekly ticket at the desk.
After a great debate I had togive in, and endeavoured to get a refund upon arrival.
I pulled up one of the managers at Waterloo to try and get him to see sense - and heres the funny bit - he pointed me to the swt website where I could make an appeal but told me there was no point as no-one reads them. ha!
Anyway, this is where all the pr, marketing and advertising fluff you like falls over.
At the point where the consumer (ie me) actually, physically interfaces with the brand the experience is shocking. This got me thinking as I listened to the station announcements 'anyone verbally or physically assaulting our staff will be prosecuted' 'dont talke your eye off your bags or we'll take them away and blow them up' etc etc - negative, negative.
Now SWT have a monopoly situation. I have NO CHOICE but to use their service. But, and its a big one (we like big butts) they are fostering some serious ill-will towards their brand by doing everything in their power to make things more difficult and annoying for their consumer. I have NO CHOICE at the moment but if in the future I get any opportunity to stick one on them I will be taking it. And theres 1000's others who will no doubt feel the same. B'STARDS.
This is Thatcher's legacy - public services SOLD OFF to the private sector. For what? To improve service by creating competition? where is the competition?
Ive come up with a new line for their marketing.
'South West Trains - Fuck you and give us your money'
They should use it - at least it's transparent.
Great start to the day.
jeez, i thought my ramblings were pretty random till i came across the website of former Clash manager and original punk strategist Bernard Rhodes.
Heres a sample quote:
'These are the early days of a street peoples movement, formed to counter the vast amount of cultural and political bullshit which is constantly invading our lives.Worse, this corrupt and boring corperate paradise for squares, is being promoted by a media we detest but are forced to endure.
If you're hip you'll understand'
www.bernardrhodes.com
disaster struck the other day.
We'd been out shopping a while back a bought a bunch of 12inch frames designed for LP covers. The idea was to frame up some of our ols album covers with arty artwork ie the Velvets 1st, Sticky Fingers (Warhols) Sgt Pepper, maybe some old Blue Notes and suchlike to hang on the stairs. Anyway in a space saving excercise last summer i'd boxed up all my old records (i used to be a club dj back in the early 90s so its a fair old pile 1000's of 12inch singles plus 100s of vinyl lp's from jazz to punk and whatever else) wrapped the boxes in bin bags and stored them in the old ww2 bomb shelter we have in the garden. So i went out the other day to have a dig about and it turned out that over the winter the rain had come in through the airbrick and basically all the bottom level of boxes had been sitting in a few inches of water for about 5 months. I've salvaged most of the actual vinyl but the covers are pretty wrecked.
The moral? Look after what you care about, dont neglect it cos when you need it it might not be there any more.
Berrysplat tv is a project I've been involved with that I'd like to share.
Ribena is a popular drink in the UK - they claim that 97% of blackberries grown in the uk make it into Ribena. The story of this project is - what happens to the other 3%?
Budding filmmakers (we gave cameras to some film students and alereted Ribena's opted-in database to kick-off participation) are invited to submit their movies with fun, interesting , innovative ways of 'splatting' berries. The clips are voted a la YouTube etc and the overall winner trousers a thousand quid. As a little extra bonus some of the best videos will be featured behind the red button on the interactive tv ads during the four week run of the tv campaign, so its multi platform. It just gone live and theres a few bugs being ironed out on the fly but I'd welcome any comments/views.
Its a decent little piece of brand participation with a cross-platform twist and a couple of incentives. Also its not overly sell-y.
Ribena fact: while I was chatting with my hairdresser the other day she told me that when she and here boyfriend lived in New Jersey they used to make a weekly pilgrimage to a specialist deli in Brooklyn, who imported stuff from the uk, to specifically buy Ribena - for 10 dollars a bottle! - they rationed themselves to one glass a day as a taste of home.
have a look here www.berryspat.tv
another new discovery that's blown me away
'Because as with nature, innovation doesn't take place in a vacuum'
Innovation ecosystem blog
BBDO agency investigates our shared habits in an attempt to work them to a marketer's advantage or find opportunities to break them.
SOMEBODY GIVE THESE PEOPLE A SHAKE
in a grumpy mood last week I commented on Christopher S Penn's otherwise excellent and insightful journal that a list of twitter updates doth not a good blog make...and i was unsubscribing. well, he's binned the twitter updates (can follow on twitter after all if i'm interested) and so i've come back.
here's his latest musings,always thought provoking and forthright.
Never got round to using this Myspace for grown-ups but Ive now just done a megablast from my mail contacts and i guess I wait and see who it reels in.
