A must read article that describes the growing threat of Facebook for Google, as people will in future first turn to their social network for advice, searching their own communities for information and recommendations. Google is currently shut out of the exponentially growing data generated by Facebook users on a daily basis.
Read it here.
Been away for a while. I hopefully will find time enough again to post.
Was sent a link to this really nice 'history of media consumption' by Thomas Baekdal that very simply shows the radical changes in media, and makes it's predictions for the next 20 years. Impressively presented too.
Read it here
Just in case you hadn't already heard about Diesel's biggest ever party, Diesel have just released a viral video to promote their 30th anniversary party. The Diesel viral video, entitled SFW (safe for work) themed video is pretty hardcore as it takes old porn videos, but in typical subversive style they have carefully placed animations over the top to transform the previously 'adult' scenes' into humorous and innocent alternatives. Check out the video here - BUT BE WARNED, WHILE BEING SAFE FOR WORK, IT IS NOT FOR THE EASILY OFFENDED!
Diesel SFW XXX - Watch more free videos
Anyone can get a ticket, but their availability is limited. Check out the Diesel XXX site for more information. The ambitious event is taking place in 17 countries on the same day and the eclectic line up includes N.E.R.D., Mark Ronson, Pedro Winter, Mr Oizo & M.I.A. who has come out of retirement to play. This adds to the already buzzing rumor that Diesel are releasing a special limited edition pair of jeans for €30.
Not only powered by a Diesel engine, but also by the Italian denim and fashion brand of the same name. The special edition Fiat 500 by Diesel has been created by Fiat and Diesel's respective design teams. Their Urban Survival Vehicle concept is designed to navigate the busy city with added personality and style.
Thanks to it’s rivets and chrome air-vent details on the rear, nose and door pillars the military chic styling gives the cult car an added toughness. While Diesel branding is subtle, the car included many exclusive design modifications that add attitude and distinct Diesel design and fashion attitude. Diesel’s famous Mohican ‘Only The Brave’ logo is found on the 16” inch alloy wheels and chrome gear shift. The driver and passenger are greeted with the ‘For Successful Living’ claim moulded into the door sill. The tachometer and dials have been redesigned to look similar to Diesel’s distinctive watches, and even the stitching of the leather and fabric interior recalls details from denim jeans. Proving that the Diesel 500 is an exercise in attention to detail and not merely a cross branded rebadging, as has become the trend.
The car will be made available initially only online before Christmas 2008, before reaching showrooms early next year. Availablein a range of fuel efficient engine configurations, (1.2 69 bhp, 1.3 Multijet 75 bhp with DPF and 1.4 16v 100 bhp) and bronze and black colour options the car will be priced from €15,000 - €17,000.
The way people spend their free time is set to change yet again. The internet has rapidly been eating into into both the hours we don't send at work (as well as those that we do), taking more and more time away from the time we used to spend watching TV. Well, TV is just not quite ready to be cast aside so easily, and more than going down with a fight, it is seeing a rapid reincarnation. Most of my English friends spend their time online watching the BBC iPlayer, and now I am sure my friends in the US will have an equally time consuming distraction as the IMDB site launches its new free TV show and film service.
The IMDB (Internet Movie Database), is set to offer movies and TV programs for free. Amazon that owns the site has started to offer a range of movies as well as popular series such as Lost. New episodes from TV series that have not yet even been broadcast on TV, including the new Knight Rider series will be offered for free. Shows will include advertising, but should the film not be available, or should viewers want an ad-free experience an alternative film will be suggested that can be downloaded from Amazons video on demand digital rental site.
So, Amazon, a pioneering online success story and true company of the digital age has already shown that it is having to move to avoid it's business model coming under threat. Rather than deny the inevitable, and try to protect its online sales and rentals, by offering content for free, they will integrate an ad revenue model, which ultimately will lead to increase online sales from users that are willing to pay for enhanced and ad free content.
Amazon are clearly targeting being both 'the destination' online to buy content and to own the best sites about the content they are selling. They also recently launched SoundUnwound a new site that they want to become the 'Wikipedia' of music and bands.
An industry of intense competition and innovation, the mobile market is going to get it's next interesting model. Free mobile phone calls.
While some talk plans have the possibility to supplement the plan with free calls, Blyk a pan-European free mobile operator is launching the first totally free mobile talk plan in the UK market in mid-2007, with other markets to follow. The service is aimed specifically for young people and is funded by advertising.
BLYK will buy traffic from the major mobile phone carriers and give it for free to it's users, but they will have to read and also respond to a certain amount of advertising.
The service will no doubt allow advertisers very targeted opportunities and initially the service will be perceived as very popular with the young market it is aimed at. However with mobile calls and services coming down in price and with VOIP coming more and more to mobiles the appeal of free calls may not be so attractive. Especially considering the invasive nature of mobile marketing and the effort users will no doubt have to go to to respond and acknowledge the ads. Advertisers are gettting more and more savy to users following up on their ads and will no doubt expect the platform to encourage people to enguage with the advertising. I can imagine teenagers reluctantly clicking rapidly through their inbox of 20 ads, not taking the time to take not of any of the messages. I hope that BLYK have some new innovative ideas for less intrusive advertising for this platform to ensure their success. This model reminds me a lot of the free ISP's of the late 90's - rapid changes int he mobile industry could just make this new service obsolete very quickly.
Source: Springwise
Read more: BLYK
"Fresh ideas" and "being green" were the top qualities of this year's Fortune 'most respected' companies award winners.
Read more on CNN
Mark Tungate is researching a new book called THE BRANDED MALE, which will explore the changing habits of male consumers, as well as analyzing the ways marketers target men. As Mark researches and writes the book he is using his blog to share his ideas and allow people to comment, suggest ideas and offer insites into the subject. The most incicive comments will find their way into the book. A nice way to become a part of a book, without having to write a book yourself.
Read his progress and add your own comments here
I already submitted my comments:
I think you could dedicate an entire chapter to the 'let's add another blade' phenomena of marketing to men. The epitome of male product marketing, razor and shaving products, have struggled to reinvent themselves and have taken an increasingly predictable approach to differentiation. Simply adding a new blade. I thought that two blades as opposed to one made a real difference, but I struggle to feel the improvement that my 5 blade razor should be delivering. The question your book could ask is just how many blades will I be shaving with in 5 years time?
Did you ever see this quite impressive web site marketing for Philips? Harnessing cutting edge video and with it's ironic and provocative humor to create a viral effect, this is a memorable example of male marketing to the young and internet savy male.
I have had the pleasure to work with Mark, collaborating with him in the creation of FIFTY, for which Mark was the writer, and I can assure you it is worth your while contacting Mark as he is a really talented and nice guy!
Social awareness and ethical marketing arrives at one of the biggest marketing and advertising arenas - Formula One.
Normally sporting hundred of corporate logos from sponsors keen to be seen associated with the high octain sport, this years Honda F1 car it will have only an image of the world wrapping around it's high tech body. Reflecting the general trend in eco awareness and ethical issues, Honda's campaign is probably the biggest to tackle the issue of global warming.
Honda appears to be reinvesting it's traditional marketing dollars back into it's own F1 project - sponsoring their own car, not with their own branding, but with an eco awareness campaign. Their desire is to raise awareness of global warming and at the same time capitalise on the interest generated and raise awareness of their own efforts aimed at developing more eco friendly technology.
The car itself is quite stunning, with its large and totally un-Formual 1 livery, and is guaranteed to generate reaction and hence should fulfil Honda's objectives. Visitors to the MyEarthDream.com URL, the only text to apear on the car, are encouraged to make a pledge to help stop global warming and donate to a charity set up by Honda to support eco causes. Visitors that pledge will be rewarded by having their name printed onto one of the actual F1 race cars.
No doubt what Honda may miss out on in sponsorship invvestment they should recoup in PR. That said, I am sure that there will be many sponsors who while not featured on the car itself, will captialise from association with the car.
The site is very simple and well designed. View it here.
Stay tuned. This just might be the NEXT thing. From the founders of SKYPE, this new project Joost (previously code named THE VENICE PROJECT aims to revolutionise television (and the way we consume TV content), in the same way as Skype revolutionised the way we make phone calls.
It delivers FREE content in broadcast quality. I have heard from beta testers that there is no lag or buffering!!
Sign up to be a beta tester here.
Lamborghini revealed an special edition of their Murcielago model designed by Versace, designed to coincide with Paris fashion week. Each of the 10 examples come with a modified interior featuring Versace designed patterned fabric and a silver numbered commemorative tag. The car also comes complete with Versace luggage and watch. As if either of the brands are not in themselves the image of over indulgence and extreme luxury, I guess that this partnership will no doubt get themselves talked about that little but more!
It seems that no brand is without it's own customer generated content action these days. Two recent and very similar ideas, but quite different and interesting outcomes are by Penguin Books and Marmite (wikipedia ref: marmite).
Penguin has assembled a series of six classics, each published with a blank cover. The blank cover is made of a special art paper and the idea is that the reader draw or paint their own design on the actual book jacket. Readers designs can then be uploaded to a gallery within the Penguin website. I really like this idea, as book covers are such important design 'canvases', with such limited space and such rich stories that they have to communicate. How do you sum up thousands of words in such a small space? How do you attract a reader to pick up the book and convince them that this is the book they should want to read?
This turns reading a book into something new. Asking people to reflect on the book they have read, and gets them to add their own personal interpretation into the process. Everyone will have such different ideas and interpretations. It makes you wonder is all books should not have their own site where readers could leave their own comments, ideas and opinions about the book.
Penguin have been very important in book jacket design and have created many classic designs. In contrast to the personal nature of this new project, they are also typified by designs that standardised books cover design, such as designs by Jan Tschichold and Romek Marber that helped them become a brand instituion, immediately recognsiable as Penguin books. No doubt, the blank white covers in this series could just render them very visible in the book store and become a strong brand statement, and the challenge of creating the cover is a strong statement in iteself, even if not every reader takes them up on the challenge. The idea will certainly make both Penguin appear, and the reader feel creative.
It is not clear from the site, but one imagines if the best designs may be used to create the covers for these books in the future. View the submitted designs here, the first ones have been created by the staff of Penguin.
The series includes 'The Picture of Dorian Gray', by Oscar Wilde, 'Magic Tales' by The Brothers Grim and 'The Waves?, by Virginia Woolf.
Marmite take a similar approach, but rather than turning their product into the canvas for your art, they propose their product as the 'paint' so to speak. The canvas in this excercise is the piece of warm toast on your breakfast plate, and you use the Marmite to draw out your masterpiece. This is a somewhat more lighthearted scheme, but perhaps will generate more immediately interesting results as the perameters of the resulting 'artworks' are so much more limited.
You can vote for the designs at the specially created site MarmArt, where there is an ongoing daily featured artwork and a top ten as voted for by site visitors.
The resulting 'artworks' should be fun, as it the whole premise of the campaign...and more importantly it is an extremely clever way of reeinforcing the fact that the bottle is a new sqeezy type. I can imagine millions breakfasting British playing with their toast in the morning, and having fun with their marmite. Thing is if you design a masterpiece, will you eat it afterwards?
Check out the Marmite gallery here.
Thanks to Peter for sending me both of these links.
Fuel for travel is a new service available at Amsterdam's Schipol airport that allows travellers to download video and music content onto their MP3 players, mobile phones and portable video devices. Top selling albums, TV series, audio books and travel guides can be bought and downloaded from the special kiosks. They are already partnering with RedBull, MTV and Nickolodeon who are providing digital content. I assume that this branded content is provided free?
The content is only available for selected devices and currently this does not include Apple's iPod.
Five bottles designed by design studios - with music videos designed by studios, for their chosen musical artist
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