Fast Co. Article re: Future of Agencies

Thought provoking article from Fast Co. I agree with some parts and disagree with
others, and there is certainly some hyperbole.

I disagree that 7 spots for $40k and user generated TV commercials are the
future (don’t worry, you are special). I agree this is “the agency’s to
lose” (depending on how you define agency). There will be a cut in bloat,
but let’s face it big agencies are bloated. There is fragmentation and
clients are increasingly using multiple agencies, but there are pros and
cons across the board, and no one has it all figured out (yet).

The compensation structure is something that needs to change, and it will.
Agencies have to take a unified stance against giving away digital. That is
what we did at Barbarian: this site costs $1mm – take it or leave it (then
again we almost went bankrupt, but hey we stood our ground).

The good news is that smaller shops (like MMB) can adapt quicker than big
ones (the whole “complex society” thing). I have seen it first hand, and
worked with some of the people referenced in this article (one who thought
putting TV commercials in online pre-roll was “figuring out online”). This
is why a lot of good people are migrating to smaller, more nimble shops.

I think the pendulum has swung in one direction (doom and gloom) and will
eventually settle in the middle, but the old way of doing things has changed
and it did take a recession for people to acknowledge the inevitable.
Digital will not replace TV, TV did not replace radio, radio did not replace
print, and crowd sourcing will not replace agencies. But digital and
emerging media are bringing us out of our metaphorical caves and providing
us with exciting new tools to achieve our clients’ goals and channel our
creative talents.

When I see something awesome another agency created I don’t get nervous and
say “shit I would have never thought of that” - I get inspired and say “man
that is awesome – what can we do that has never been done before”. Don’t
worry about which baseball you should try to catch – just grab a bat and
start swinging. And have some fun for Chrissake.

OK Go Digital Graffiti

Those rascals from OK Go are at it again. They are creating a massive digital sign over Los Angeles using GPS, via the Dance Through Your City app created in partnership with Land Rover Evoque. This Wednesday November 17, OK Go will embark on an 8-mile trip through the streets of L.A., during which the musicians will use the app to spell out the band name. As part of the promotion, fans are also encouraged to use the app to create their own artwork, the best of which the band will use in an upcoming video.

Digital Ninja

I just blogged this. So I am a digital ninja:

Internet and TV Dominate Youth Tech Time

Recent article from Center For Media Research (via Edison Research survey) re: Youth Media Consumption. The research supports a lot of things we've assumed with good stats, but some of the #s are even more significant than I would have thought.

The study indicates that during an average day, Americans age 12-24 spend two hours and 52 minutes on the internet, making the web the media format American young adults spend the most time consuming. Television closely follows with a daily average of two hours and 47 minutes.

Listening to the radio came in a distant third with a one hour and 24 minute daily average. With a daily average of one hour and 10 minutes, video games closely trailed radio, followed by talking on the telephone (one hour and four minutes). Time spent reading magazines and newspapers is negligible.

20% of 12-24s have listened to Pandora in the last month, with 13% indicating usage in the past week. By comparison, 6% of 12-24s indicated they have listened to online streams from terrestrial AM/FM stations in the past week.

More than four in five 12-24s own a mobile phone in 2010 (up from only 29% in 2000), and these young Americans are using these phones as media convergence devices:

· 50% of younger mobile phone users have played games on their phones

· 45% have accessed social networking sites

· 40% have used their phones to listen to music stored on their phones

YouTube Play - Live at the Guggenheim.

YouTube Play - Live at the Guggenheim.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a6ivDwc77Ok&feature=channel

YouTube came to Barbarian a couple years ago asking us for ways to get the creative community to view YouTube as a creative canvas - a place to do more than post TV commercials. I.e. help monetize a site that serves more than 2 billion videos daily, and spends a fortune on hosting. This was not a TBG idea, but seems to be spawned from the same challenge.

Here is an overview from ABC News:

On Thursday night, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum and the Google Inc.-owned video website presented "YouTube Play," an exhibit of 25 videos selected by a jury including the filmmaker Darren Aronofsky and the music group Animal Collective.

The videos, which are gathered online at YouTube.com/play and will be on view at the Guggenheim through Sunday, display a curious collision of mediums. The exhibit is an attempt to curate an essentially unmanageable library of content: Some two billion videos are watched daily on YouTube.

iPad Usage Stats

I ran across this article on iPad usage. Impressive stats, and the first I have seen. Food for thought.


Highlights:
- More than two in five said they used the tablet at least 10 hours weekly
- Almost a quarter said it had become their primary entertainment device, ahead of TV and trailing PCs by just 9 percentage points.
- The iPad was considered the No. 1 delivery method for newspapers and magazines
- Its popularity for books was even greater: 41% of iPad owners preferred to read on the device, vs. 36% who liked hard copies better.
- iPads were also the top gaming device for owners of the tablets, beating out consoles by 2 percentage points.

Forbes Top Social Media Campaigns

http://www.forbes.com/2010/08/17/facebook-old-spice-farmville-pepsi-forbes-viral-marketing-cmo-network-social-media_slide.html

JetBlue + Social Media

Good Ad Age interview with Marty St. George of Jet Blue on Mullen and social media:
Nothing mind blowing but interesting to hear how Jet Blue perceives their brand, how Mullen stood apart, etc.

I like this quote: People call it social media but we actually see it as the opposite of media; it's direct communication with the brand on a one-to-one level.

Success of Brands + Social Media

Amidst the recent cacophony of press around social media, this article (sponsored by Performics and performed by ROI Research) has some good stats showing that Facebook is in fact becoming a relevant platform for brand marketing.

40% use social sites to connect with brands and products
37% said they learned about a new product or service from a social networking site
32% of Twitter users said they re-tweet content provided by a company or product
50% of Facebook users click on Facebook ads to "like" a brand
90% of Facebook users said at least some of the companies or products they're fans of have done a good job providing relevant content
32% of respondents said they have used social networks to recommend a product or service to friends.

Furthermore, there appears to be significant demand for more content and engagement with brands via online social networks:
49% wanted more downloadable coupons
46% wanted more notifications of sales and special deals
35% wanted more information about new products from companies or products on Facebook

They also juxtapose #s from another poll to validate the findings.

http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=129738

Thanks

World Cup Taking Us To New Multiplatform Plateau?

An interesting perspective from Media Post on the impact the World Cup is having on Multiplatform viewing. (The Obama Inauguration on CNN w/ the Facebook feed was my favorite multiplatform experience to date). Not enough new stats are available yet to draw conclusions, but thought I’d share with you soccer fans. Goooooal!

Choosing An Agency Based On Price

My coworker sent me thisAdAge article today. Pretty much the course we have been taking with our clients, and the lessons they have been learning when they veer off course and go with a cheaper vendor - they always come back and we need to jump in to salvage the project:
http://adage.com/smallagency/post?article_id=144608

Top 1,000 Sites

Good reference from Ad Planner:
http://www.google.com/adplanner/static/top1000/

The Emergence of Mobile Marketing

Great research again from Center For Media Research on the potential of mobile marketing and adoption rates due too the built in base.

Gotta love this bit:

Mobile marketing is set to reach dominant penetration levels faster than any medium before it, thanks to an existing installed base of cell phones (80% of the population) rapidly being exchanged for smart phones (currently about 31% of the population and growing). By contrast, when the Internet was born as a commercial medium in the mid-1990s, only 8% of households had a modem-enabled computer.

After radio, the first electronic new medium, aired the first commercial in 1922, it took 30 years, then 28, then 15 for the next new medium to arrive, from TV advertising in the early 1950s to cable advertising in the late 1970s to the Internet in the mid-1990s.

The study sees fundamentals in place for mobile that will boost its trajectory over the next five years beyond what broadcast TV reached in the 1950s and the Internet reached in the late 1990s.

Marketers Use + Measurement of Emerging Channels

Some interesting stats below from Omniture research on how marketers as a whole are using and measuring ROI across various emerging channels.

Everyone wants to figure it out, but no one is really there yet.

I.e. Take heart – everyone is struggling with the same issues/obstacles/opportunities. :)


According to the results of the 2010 Omniture Online Analytics Benchmark Survey about marketers' use of emerging channels

such as mobile, social media and video, 55% of respondents cannot effectively measure marketing ROI, and only 14% of respondents utilize video, mobile and social media in their marketing mix. Matt Langie, director of product marketing, Omniture Business Unit, observes that "...a significant opportunity exists for marketers to implement measurement and optimization strategies for mobile, social media and video... sound strategies for these emerging channels can be a significant competitive advantage to drive revenue growth." Highlights from the survey include the following: ROI
80% believe ROI from online marketing activities is important to measure, but only 31% of marketers can effectively measure it
Conversion
86% of respondents think conversion rate from online marketing activities is important to measure, but 25% cannot effectively measure it
Social Media
69.1% of respondents are using social media in their marketing efforts
41% of those using social media lack a mechanism to measure social media conversion
Mobile
77.3% of respondents, are not currently using mobile in their marketing efforts
Of the 22.7% that are using mobile, 73% can measure if website visitors are coming from a mobile device, but only 30% are able to measure their mobile app conversions
Video
42.9% of all respondents are using online video in their overall marketing efforts
Of those using online video, 59% feel that post-video conversion is one of the most important video metrics, yet 70% are unable to measure post-video conversion
40% of respondents who are using online video lack a mechanism to measure video starts

Inspiring Stuff

Best Non-TV Campaigns of the Decade:
http://adage.com/article?article_id=141011

Top 20 Digital Campaigns of past 20 years
http://www.shots.net/shots_20th_digital.asp

SEO/SEM Paying Off

Nice Center For Media Research article on how SEO and SEM have been paying off for advertisers. Good sound bytes:

28.0% of merchants report more than 25% of their site traffic stems from paid search advertisements, while 51.5% say more than a quarter of their traffic comes from natural search

37.7% of respondents spent more than 50% of their online marketing budget, 11.9% spent 61% to 75%, and 20.8% spent more than 75%, according to the Internet Retailer survey of IRNewsLink e-newsletter readers conducted with e-mail marketing and survey firm Vovici Corp.

27.0% report more than 50% of their online sales are attributable to search engine marketing

The Evolution of Facebook and Threat to Google

Really interesting perspective from Mashable via CNN on the power of Facebook Like, and the site's potential as a search engine and ad network:

Google dominated the web in the era of interlinked Web pages. Every link from one Web site to another counted as a vote, determining the most relevant pages for any search term. The result: An unbeatable search engine.
Except that links between Web pages are no longer the most abundant source of relevant recommendations -- instead, people are sharing links with friends on social networks like Facebook and Twitter. Now Google is paying those sites for access to public updates, but it lacks key data that would allow true personalization of search results. Google doesn't have a complete list of your friends, combined with a list of their interests. Facebook does.
Facebook is in a position to build the world's best search engine: One that delivers results based on your friendships and interests. The launch of the "Like" button, meanwhile, means that Facebook will know more about your individual preferences than ever before.

Oh, and I stumbled across this article because someone in my Facebook network "Recommended" it and it appeared on my CNN homepage. Good stuff.

McD's to Use Facebook Location Based Reward System

http://adage.com/digital/article?article_id=143742

Interesting but lame that they are using a Facebook location based app vs. Four Square. And lame that McDonalds is doing it – the purpose of Four Square is for you to be deemed cool for going to a place frequently, and going to McD’s frequently does not have that connotation, you know? I think this could backfire...

Facebook to Close Connect

From Mashable: http://mashable.com/2010/04/21/facebook-kills-facebook-connect/

The Golden Age of Small Agencies

Ad Age article on the golden age of small agencies. Nothing too new that I haven't been saying but nice to see the opinion is widely shared.

http://adage.com/smallagency/post?article_id=143392

Twitter Unveils @AnyWhere Platform @ SXSW

Per Online Media Daily Twitter Unveils @AnyWhere Platform, But Not Ad Plans At SXSW.

Twitter CEO Evan Williams showed off new technology Monday that lets content partners cleanly pull Twitter links and streams onto their Web site through JavaScript, instead of an API, but kept hush on advertising plans.... the technology allows partners to stream tweets onto their Web site, mouse over content that pulls up a "hover card" for more information, and connect with those who tweet to read and respond to posts with one click. When the service launches with Amazon, Bing, Citysearch, Digg, Salesforce, YouTube, Yahoo and a handful of media sites, people will have an option to follow tweets without leaving the Web site.

That last part is cool. Thy did not give a date for rollout so well need to wait and see.

Star Wars Review - 1 of 7

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FxKtZmQgxrI

Social-Media Power of Justin Bieber Beliebers

An interesting article in AdAge today re: the Social-Media Power of Justin Bieber Beliebers. As one of my coworkers put it "YouTube is the MTV of this generation".

Bieber may be the biggest legit pop star ever created by YouTube. Other viral-video phenomena have garnered more views over time, but in terms of transitioning from genuine obscurity to massively monetizable pop superstardom, Bieber is unmatched. Three years ago he was a kid living in a small town in Stratford, Ontario. After competing in something called "Stratford Idol," he put some of his surprisingly soulful covers of songs by the likes of Usher and Ne-Yo on YouTube, garnering more than 10 million views before getting signed by, yes, Usher. (By the time "My World" came out last November, he'd surpassed 100 million YouTube views.) As he notes rather hilariously on his MySpace page (Bieber was just 13 when this was all happening), "I sang for Usher, and his people and he really wanted to sign me then and there, but I still had a meeting with Justin Timberlake, who also wanted to sign me. It turned out Usher's deal was way better." (Go, player!) He went on to become the first solo artist in history to send four songs into Billboard's Top 40 before his debut album was even released.

Here he is in action:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kffacxfA7G4&feature=fvw

And then there's this:

Eight days ago, the hashtag trend #Lilyallenfatwhore hit Twitter's Trending Topics list. Why? Because on March 12, British pop star Lilly Allen tweeted this: "Justin bieber should have kiddie bras on the merch stall.... Ha" -- which caused Justin Bieber fans to go ballistic, with one of them creating the #Lilyallenfatwhore Twitter meme with the hopes that it would go viral. (Naturally, it did.) Word to the wise: Do not eff with the Beliebers!

Stumble Upon

http://www.stumbleupon.com/

InstaPaper

Similar to a concept we were ptroposing to Bloomberg - tage pages you want to read later:
http://www.instapaper.com/

Instapaper gives you a Read Later bookmark.
When you find something you want to read, but you don't have time, click Read Later.
Come back when you have time, or read your articles on the go.

And here is an article from PC World on why it may be one of the first big iPad Apps.

SXSW WInners

http://sxsw.com/interactive/webawards/winners

Agencies Hiring - Want People With Traditional + Digital Expertience

An encouraging article from AdAge this week that agencies are hiring en masse, and are primarily looking for people with a blend of traditional and digital experience.

They are looking to fill the slots vacated with 2009's layoffs, with people who have more relevant skill sets for the new marketing landscape:

Ann Brown, founder of recruiter Ann Brown Co. , said it's not just digital jobs that are being filled. "Fortunately there are a number of agencies evolving the way they need to be and are hiring people with 360-degree experience," Ms. Brown said. "They don't want to train anybody in digital if all they have is a traditional background. They want people coming in to look at things from all sides."

I have certainly seen this uptick in the number of calls I have received of late, and know that a lot of agencies are immersed in multiple large, NB pitches. This is a good thing - all boats rise with the tide.

Whopper Face

Brilliant work by Ogilvy Brazil as reported by AdAge:

"Have it Your Way" reaches a whole new level in this Brazilian BK stunt.

Ogilvy Brazil took the Burger King "Have it Your Way" tagline to new heights and presented diners with a "customized" surprise when they ordered a Whopper.

A secret camera at a BK restaurants took customers' pictures. Their photos were then printed instantly onto the wrappers of their freshly made burgers, giving a super personal meaning to "having it their way."

The Power of "No"

An interesting article by Media Post today on the power of saying No. This is certainly one thing I learned at TBG, where we had to pick our battles wisely due to the project based nature. Lots of times we would decline a project due to the parameters ($/timing) and the client would come back with more $/time, allowing us to do the work in the appropriate manner.

It's quite natural that we want to please everyone when we can. But, we can't. And most people figure that fact out over time -- certainly the successful ones do. However, many people still try to make as many people happy as long as they can, to the point that they never make any of them as happy as they could -- and make some unhappy. Those situations call for using the word "no" early and often.

But like everything, No is best when used in moderation.

Google Introduces YouTube Overlay Ads

According to Ad Age, Google announced that they will be selling Overlays on YouTube videos. Essentially it is a long tail approach, much like buying keywords on Google. Advertisers can buy words and select the videos the overlays will appear on - e.g. a "dog on skateboard" video may have an ad overlay to Pets.com. The long tail nature here means they will need to make their $ here based on volume vs. individual mass buys. Overlays can be purchased by CPM or cost per click. Interesting to see how this goes - may be a nice balance between maintaining the credibility of YT amongst users, and allowing advertisers to tap the audience, thereby skirting the longtime YouTube conundrum (how do you maintain cred with users but also make advertisers feel safe in the existing environment).

Mobile Coupons in 2010

I have been discussing this a lot lately with potential clients. The reality of mobile coupons in the near feature.

According to this report by Media Post (citing Forrester), while businesses are interested in the possibility of serving coupons via mobile devices, technical hurdles and a limited audience mean that mobile coupons may not have their breakout year in 2010, but that the functionality is likely in the not too distant future.

There is the issue of multiple platforms for different phones (iPhone, Backberry, Android, etc.), then the cost of getting franchises to pay for any necessary hardware (scanners) and training, and the customer adoption rate, which according to this report seem to be a little lagging (only 3% of mobile consumers to date have asked for a coupon, and only another 3% have actually used one, according to Forrester).

Location based, mobile coupons are obviously going to be a big benefit to QSRs and retailers in the near future. The ability to offer someone a coupon for $1 off a sub as they are walking past your store, during lunch hour is a huge benefit to all parties. The ability to serve customized, real time deals,potentially even based on past behavior/purchases, and tie into a loyalty or rewards programs, ups the ante.

So the takeaway seems to be - start laying the foundation and be ready so that when the technology and consumer demand catch up, your brand is ready to deliver.
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Partners + Spade = Brilliant

Gotta say I dig Partners + Spade. They create gorgeous advertising for clients like Kate Spade, store designs like the J Crew Liquor Store, films that have been featured at Cannes, books, documentaries with Mike Mills, and they have their own store that sells exclusive items.

Partners & Spade, est. in 2008 by Andy Spade and Anthony Sperduti, is a storefront and studio on Great Jones Street off the Bowery in lower Manhattan. The studio produces films, books, apparel and conceptual products as well as consults on marketing and branding projects for select clients. The shop, open on weekends to the public, showcases a transitional and continuous group show of artwork, collections, found objects, and ideas generated by Spade and Sperduti as well as a changing cast of collaborators.

Oh, Andy Spade, is the co-creator of Kate Spade (with his wife), so there's that little side project as well.

So cool. The many outlets for their talents, yields great work in many forms. So inspired by their talent, and their brazenness to believe they could do it all and break the traditional business models.

The Evolution of UGC and Crowd Sourcing

An interesting Media Post article on the evolution of crowd sourcing and social media.

I agree with his premise and he does a nice job of taking the 40k foot view, and articulating how it all works together and how it has evolved.

The UGC space and crowd-sourcing are still very much alive... but the focus seems to have shifted from consumers creating the content, to their becoming a waypoint for the content as it spreads.The consumer's perceived value has become less that of an instigator and more as the kinetic energy needed to pass the messaging along.

A few years ago it was about the brand listening to and inserting itself in the social media conversations. But the pendulum seemed to have swung too far in one direction and is now coming back to center. The whole "consumers creating Doritos commercials because-they-can" thing is (hopefully) behind us. Sure consumers can generate content (UGC.CGC) but it seems like the more appropriate fit is for them to become a conduit to the content. They use their social media channels to pass alog things they like.

Advertisers should take a cue from this as well - they should stop forcing themselves into places they should not be (obligatory FB brand pages) and rather givng the people the content they want and making it easy to distribute and share with their friends (embed YouTube videos, post to FB, Digg, etc.).

I also like this articulation on how UGC/WOM fits into the larger digital marketing universe:

The present strength of digital marketing lies in its balance between broadcast and word-of-mouth. Broadcast refers to the standard banners, buttons and rich media units that most publishers employ. The word-of-mouth component encompasses all of the social media efforts like sharing and referring friends, endorsing brands and becoming fans of your favorite products. Crowd-sourcing fits directly between the two. Its day is still likely to come, as more marketers finally grasp how to use both aspects -- broadcast and word-of-mouth -- individually and together.

Barbie "Mad Men" Dolls

Per this NYT article 4 figures based on Mad Men characters (Don Draper, his wife, Betty; Roger Sterling; and Joan Holloway), will be released in limitied edition and a $79 price point.

The dolls come with period accessories like hats, overcoats, pearls and padded undergarments, but no cigarettes, ashtrays, martini glasses or cocktail shakers.

Nice!

McKinsey : Building Organizational Capabilities

Paper from McKinsey & Co. on Building Organizational Capabilities.

Have not rad it yet but wanted o keep track of it.

Growth of the Internet

An interesting piece here on the BBC about the growth of the Internet over the last 10 years. Specifically the growth by region of the world.

Look at the disparity between 2008 and where we were back in 1998.

Africa is the one continent very behind on the curve.

Large V Small Agency Structure

Change has been coming to the agency world for years and it has been accelerated by the recession. Large agencies try to figure out how to do digital, and their approach is typically hire or every possible position. Kind of like when my boss at an old agency hired a VP of analytics, when we didn't have anything to analyze and what I really needed were 4 more Flash people to create the sites. Anyway, the large agency model of checking every box with an in-house resource is not practical or profitable, because the nature of the business is so fluid. Advertisers even tend to use 2-3 digital shops for hat niche expertise - and they should.

Today I came across some research by Second Wind Online called The Small + Smart Agency Model. In brief the two charts represent how big vs. small agencies staff - you can see which is the smarter model.




This is something that I have definitely seen in my journey the last few years, from small to large shops. I believe the smaller shops are best poised for success, since they are staffed with competent old-school big agency people, but are nimble and can make quick adjustments, they do not have the enormous overhead, and they do not have resources in every seat and are more able to leverage the outsourcing model - building a dream team based on the needs of a specific client/project.

Here is an excerpt from Second Wind on the topic:

Here are the steps to follow to attain this Small + Smart Agency status.
1) First, email Jim Hughes at jim@brandestabishment.com. He has a lot of ideas about how to move agencies into the Small + Smart model.
2)Find your core competency. All agencies do particular things exceptionally well. Find those things your agency does well and get even better at doing them.
3) Increase your outsource options. For the other skills you need to fully service clients, you need to increase the number and level of freelancers, strategic partners, virtual employees and consultants you have access to. AND, you need to work on methods to pay them fairly, make money on the deal, lock them in as partners and make sure they don’t bypass you and go directly to your clients.
4) Be competitive. You can compete with ANY agency in the future. All you need is the right mindset and the desire. There are numerous “creative communities”, as well as lots of unaffiliated talent out there—those who have given up working for agencies or companies and want to be independent—enabling you to construct any team, pitch any account and always have the best people ready to do the work for your clients. Let the networking begin…
The Small + Smart Agency is the high quality, low overhead, high capability agency of the future.

I read a whole book dedicated to this topic last year by Seth Godin - "Small is the New Big". The old agency model is broken, as is the old way of doing things in business. It's a brave new world.

Digital Coupons Beat Newspapers in 2009

Coupons.com research reports that Digital Coupons Beat Newspapers in 2009.

The redemption values carried by digital coupons in 2009 grew ten times faster than those of coupons printed in newspapers, according to statistics from Coupons.com, a digital coupon platform.

"For the first time in almost two decades the use of coupons increased in 2009, in part due to the growth of digital coupons"

Now this is obviously largely fueled by the recession - I know lots of people using coupons who never did before, but it is also a testament to the technology. This should encourage QSRs to invest in scanners (most require that franchisees cover the hardware costs). The investment would obviously pay off - especially if there was a loyalty component to the program encouraging and rewarding repeat visits.

Google Cloud Back Up

From ZD Net :

Hoping to build confidence in the safety of cloud computing, Google will now offer enterprise customers something called "synchronous replication." Simply put, the free feature backs up data within Apps to multiple data centers so that, if a disruption were to occur, the amount of data lost (or the amount of time without access to the data) is minimized greatly.

"Every action you take in Gmail is simultaneously replicated in two data centers at once, so that if one data center fails, we nearly instantly transfer your data over to the other one that's also been reflecting your actions," the search giant explains. "Our goal is not to lose any data when it's transferred from one data center to another, and to transfer your data so quickly that you don't even know a data center experiences an interruption." Google goes on to qualify this statement by saying that "no backup solution from us or anyone else is absolutely perfect."

Water-Cooler Effect: Internet + TV

Nice article from the NYT on how social media may be driving TV viewership. I.e. people watching TV alone but sharing the experience digitally with their friends. Like when I was watching the olympics @ 11:30PM and had no one to celebrate Shaun White's gold medal run with - except Twitter. Kinda like harassing your friends during a Red Sox game over IM, but less invasive.

Blogs and social Web sites like Facebook and Twitter enable an online water-cooler conversation, encouraging people to split their time between the computer screen and the big-screen TV.

The Nielsen Company, which measures television viewership and Web traffic, noticed this month that one in seven people who were watching the Super Bowl and the Olympics opening ceremony were surfing the Web at the same time.

I agree that social media has been driving viewership - my wife, a newbie Facebook'er, got me watching the men's figure skating (not that there's anything wrong with that) because her friends were talking about the outfits on FB. She had to watch so she could be part of the slanderous conversation.

The most tightly woven and rewarding example was watching the Obama inauguration on CNN/Facebook, where you were able to toggle between your friends comments, and those of all FB'ers.

This is a great example example of the medium having success by facilitating a pre-existing behavior, vs. trying to force fit itself where it doesn't belong.

Ad Age Top Marketers 2008

Good link to hold onto:

http://adage.com/datacenter/article?article_id=132901

Web First Approach

Interesting article from Ad Age about how EURO RSCG has experienced success by bringing 4D (digital arm) "inside" the agency vs. treating it as a silo.

They refer to it as a "web first" approach, but the success I have seen is where it is an "Idea First" approach. The idea comes first, and then you simultaneously see how the idea translates to or is communicated via different mediums. It is not "let's create an iPhone App or mobile component", rather "what are the right vehicles that convey this message or drive the desired action". The end result is a campaign that synergistically leverages the appropriate mediums (not necessarily ALL mediums) vs. forcing itself into places it shouldn't be (e.g. a Facebook page that no one goes to).

I think the real key here is getting digital a true seat at the table. Having worked at a large traditional shop trying to "figure out" digital, the real issue is not always with the digital group, rather with the other people around it - getting them to let down the walls and share the ideation. Kudos to RSCG for getting out of their own way and figuring it out.

Euro's range of offerings gives it the ability to grasp the bigger marketing picture that many digital-only agencies are criticized as lacking. Yet, within the scale of the big network sits a strong digital offering. "Fundamentally, digital is too important to have in silo," said Mr. Jones.

It's a belief that stems from an experiment Mr. Jones tried more than a decade ago in Australia, inserting a traditional shop inside an interactive one, rather than alongside it. "This is digital taking over the agency -- not the other way around,"

Adobe and Wired

Great video on the evolution of print. Combining advertising and editorial using the iPad:

http://tv.adobe.com/watch/xd-inspire/transforming-the-magazine-experience-with-wired/

This is why the publishers are so excited. Key quote "this gives us an opportunity to re-set the economics". I.e. make money, save publishing.

And here is Bonnier's effort:

http://hypebeast.com/2009/12/bonnier-mag-prototype/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+hypebeast%2Ffeed+%28Hypebeast%29&utm_content=Google+Reader

Double McTwist 1260

Epic. You gotta love the Double McTwist 1260 on the victory lap after he already secured the gold medal - scoring 48.4 after securing with a 46.8 and catching 25 foot air over the head of i-Pod. The banter between Sean and his coach on prime time was also the stuff of Olympic lore.

Digital Shift in Marketing Budgets

From a study conducted by Econsultancy/ExactTarget, 46% of companies plan to increase their marketing budgets in 2010, and 66% will increase their investments in digital marketing channels.

Other interesting nuggets:

• 70% of responding companies plan to increase their budgets for off-site social media (i.e. Facebook, Twitter)

• Only 17% of respondents are increasing their print media budgets, compared to 41% who are decreasing spending. 15% of companies are increasing their radio budgets, but 36% are spending less

• More than half of companies plan to increase their budgets for mobile marketing (56%), email marketing (54%), and paid search (51%)

Wow. 66% increasing investment in digital, and 41% decreasing print media budgets.

lan To Increase Marketing Budgets In 2010
	Overall Budget	Digital Budget
Increase budget	46%	66%
Keep the same	42%	30%
Decrease budget	13%	4%
Source: Marketing Budgets 2010: Effectiveness, Measurements and Allocation Report, ExactTarget, February 2010

JD Salinger Dead at 91.

Breaking News Alert from the NYT:

J.D. Salinger, the elusive and enigmatic author of “The Catcher in the Rye,” has died, The Associated Press reported. He was 91 and lived in Cornish, N.H.

The A.P. cited a statement from Mr. Salinger’s literary representative, saying that he died of natural causes at his home.

Published in 1951, “The Catcher in the Rye” became Mr. Salinger’s most famous work with its distinctive depiction of its angry, iconoclastic teenage protagonist, Holden Caulfield. Mr. Salinger frequently dealt with the subject of precocious youth in his short stories of the Glass family, as well as “Franny and Zooey,” a collection of two long short stories. He had not published a new work since 1965, and lived in near-total isolation, having refused the attention of the literary world and the news media for decades.

So sad. I read Franny + Zooey and Raise High the Roof Beams... this year. And like any angst ridden teenage boy, Catcher in the Rye was one of my favorites.

Watching the Apple iPad conference...

http://www.engadget.com/2010/01/27/live-from-the-apple-tablet-latest-creation-event/?sort=newest&refresh=60

The iPad. You heard it here first. ;)

.5 inches thin, 1.5 pounds -- 9.7 inch IPS display. 10 hours of battery life.

NYT : With Apple Tablet, Print Media Hope for a Payday

An interesting article on the eve of the alleged Apple Tablet release. Doe a good job of explaining why the ailing media industry is all atwitter, but also outlines some of the potential pitfalls:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/26/technology/26apple.html?em

Summary:

It will run all the applications of theiPhone and iPod Touch, have a persistent wireless connection over 3G cellphone networks and Wi-Fi, and will be built with a 10-inch color display, allowing newspapers, magazines and book publishers to deliver their products with an eye to the design that had grabbed readers in print.

Their optimism for the tablet also stems from consumers’ willingness to spend money using mobile devices. In the last decade, while people downloaded music illegally to their desktop computers, they happily paid small amounts of money on their cellphones to download ring tones and send text messages.

The iPhone has provided further proof that the economics of mobile devices are unique: the Apple App Store is expected to generate an estimated $1.4 billion this year, according to an analysis by Piper Jaffray.

Kaiser Report on Media Consumption for Kids (8-18)

An interesting (and somewhat unsettling) report on media consumption for kids (8-18) by the Kaiser Family Foundation. Interesting to see the breakout by media type. The hours per vehicle are informative, but also stunning.

Summary : According to a new study by the Kaiser Family Foundation,
eight-to-eighteen year-olds spend an average of more than
71/2 hours a day, seven days a week with media. The aim (of
this study), says Kaiser, is to provide a more solid base
from which to examine media's effects on children, and to
help guide those who are proactively using media to inform
and educate America's youth.

Media Use (8- to-18 year-olds; Average Amount Of Time Spent With Each Medium In A Typical Day)
	Time Spent (hrs:min)
Medium	2009	2004	1999
TV content	4:29	3:51	3:47
Music/audio	2:31	1:44	1:48
Computer	1:29	1:02	:27
Video games	1:13	:49	:26
Print	:38	:43	:43
Movies	:25	:25	:18
Total media exposure	10:45	8:33	7:29
Multitasking proportion	29%	26%	16%
Total media use	7:38	6:21	6:19
Source: Kaiser Family Foundation Study, January 2009

Review : The Gum Theif - by Douglas Coupland

I met Douglas Coupland at a reading of "Girlfriend in Coma" years ago. He was totally cool, funny and down to earth We totally would have been BFFs. He was in a Smith's phase (obviously). The lights dimmed for a second at the reading and he said "Shoplifters of the world unite". We traded music recommendations after the reading. He was a cool, funny, genuine, down to earth dude. So I will always support him and buy his books.

Like all of Coupland's work, this one was a little depressing, while at the same time uplifting, with threads of pop culture, and an obsession with the apocalypse.

The story within a story could be criticized, but I thought it kept it moving nicely, and enjoyed the multiple narratives. I loved the nod to "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf" (Edward Albee), a favorite play of mine from college, and have now picked that up as my next read.

Review : Juliet Naked by Nick Hornby

I have been reading Mr. Hornby's books since a friend recommended "High Fidelity" when it first came out (the book, not the movie) - I underlined almost every line in the book. I love his style, humor, pop culture references, and love for/taste in music (he coined the phrase "Westerbergian"). I love how he confesses to loving Nelly Furtado in "Songbook" and says "you are either for music or against it". When I started this one I was afraid it was a rehash of "High Fidelity" for the digital decade (which I heard him mention in a review). But it found its own heart about 1/4 through, and I really enjoyed it. Maybe he will read this review like Tucker! Hope he likes it. Keep 'em coming!