Here are some pictures from the party in second life, and a great piece of photoshop work for my goodbye gift ...
Berat at Cannes:
The party:
As you already could read, I'm moving to a new job at ONE Agency as of January 1st. But not without a great party!
On Wednesday (20/12) I'm thanking my colleagues with a drink, and you can be there too. The party simultaneously takes place in Second Life. So as of 18:00 (CET) you definitely must drop by at "The Black Sun".
Get into the atmosphere with some pics, and by the way, check out the shirt I made especially for the occasion:
I love it!
Update:
If you navigate to the page about person of the year on the TIME site, you have to got through a splash page ("pre-roll" in the US) for Chrysler that says "You might not be Time Person of the Year. But you can drive like you are." ... I didn't even notice myself, but David at Learfield Interaction Blog apparently has the courage to read banners :).
A dutch journalist recently complained that a CEO had announced his resignation on his own blog. This leaves no more room for journalists to do their job ... Kind of a strange reasoning if you ask me. Clearly journalism is changing profoundly. Blogs create an unprecedented openness, and that is more of a challange to companies then to journalists. When it's the aforementionned CEO blogging one can expect him to know what he can and can not write on his blog. But things are different for huge corporations like Microsof where more then 1500 employees have their own blogs.
But to the surprise of many, including myself, this has not lead to major problems. Responsible bloggers apparently feel spontaneously what's acceptable and what is not. At Microsoft there are no official policy on what and how employees can blog. And rightly so, because before you know it, the corporate legal department stands at your desk and then open and honest communication is replaced by overcomplacted press releases that say nothing.
But counting on the common sense of your employees of course does cary a number of risks. There's always someone who does not agree with the direction the company takes, of has a different vision what can and can not be said. But how big is that problem? In fact, there is no problem, if you have nothing to hide.
And that is what it's all about. If you work for an authentic company, if your brand has a true vision and identity that is not just a shiny layer of varnish, then you can be transparent without a worry. Then you don't need to be afraid that someone may publish an internal document online.
All of this is of course not very new. Honest is a value that we were raised with by mom and dad. But untill the rise of the internet as a means of communication, companies could comfortably hide behind glossy advertising campaigns. Apparently the basic values of a healthy society were foregotten by many of these communcations specialists. No wonder advertising people score worse then lawyers when it comes to trustfullness. Todays campaigns only work if they are a reflection of the true values of the company behind it. And if that is not the case, there's always a consumer that will find it out and tell it to the world.
So it's high time to align our companies' vision with what society and consumers want, and then communicate authentically and transparently. The future is to the open and honest brands and marketeers!
I was recently asked by De Morgen to comment on a study by IP saying that time spent in front of television has significantly increased over the last 10 years. This sounded rather strange to me, not in line with other studies that say the share of TV has gone down. The first explanation I could come up with was the fact that people multi-task more. Different media are 'consumed' simultaneously. And here are some numbers that confirm that:
Source
Via: Futurelab
The new coffee innovation by Douwe Egberts: Café Switch (see my previous blogpost about Café Switch) is promoted through a very new medium: Thumb-vertising.
Don't know whether thumb-vertising is here to stay, it for sure very appropriate for this product.
eMarketer publishes the results of a survey by ZenithOptimedia about the evolution of add spendings by channel. The title is "Online Ad Spending to Outpace Overall Ad Market Growth" and the subtitle too talks about a overproportional growth for online advertising. All good news for the evangelists of online advertising, but I found the numbers for online to rather low. Now, let's have a look at them in another perspective.
In 2006 online add spending is supposed to end at a 5,8% share, knowing that people spend largely over 20% of their media-time online. In three years time the online advertising share will, according to this study, be at 8,6%. But how much time will people spend online by then? Let's make a few assumptions:
1. "The Web" & stuff
Pure internet use as we know it today will grow, and let's assume it grows to the same level as time spent watching TV, about 30%. Considering the emergence of video on the web, this sounds logical. By this logic, the growth of online advertising as predicted by ZenithOptimedia simply follows the growth of the medium itself: about 50% in two years time. I don't believe this.
Online advertising is still in an infant stage. All players (advertisers, media, media planners & creative agencies) are working hard to find the right model, to become more professional and to grasp the real potential of the web. This must result in a disproportionate growth. So 8,6% in 2009? Make that 14% or so (gut feel).
2. What is TV?
How is TV defined in this context? IP TV, Internet TV, interactive TV through cable, etc. The traditional broadcast model is being challenged thanks to new technology which allow for interaction. Viewers become participants. This again requires new communication strategies which are much closer to what today is called online advertising then to traditional broadcast TV commercials. It would be an interresting exercise to try and quantify this evolution too in a survey.
3. And how mobile and games?
What about the third screen, and the game console? Playstation and Microsoft are stepping up their efforts in in-game advertising. Mobile devices, especially phones, are probably more important in time spent by the consumer then TV. Advertising on these devices is still developing, but in three years time a lot can happen.
In my opinion the 8,6% share for online in 2009 may reflect the share of 'traditional' online advertising, meaning banners of all kind. But we'll for sure add the same amount in new channels and new ways of using interactive media for marketing purposes. The world is to the creative and innovative, the revolution is on!
How's that for an announcement ... here's the official press release (spiced up with some fun comments):
ONE Agency Strengthens Its Team with Bert Van Wassenhove
ONE Agency, the recently founded, full-service, interactive communications and marketing agency, has attracted another experienced talent to help build its business. As of January 1, 2007, Bert Van Wassenhove will join the team as “New Marketing” Manager. HERE COMES THE IMPORTANT PART: New marketing at ONE Agency stands for true interaction between organisations and their customers and between brands and consumers, with a strong focus on digital experiences. (WATCH OUT, THIS IS WORK IN PROGRESS, THE NEW MARKETING WORLD IS IN PERMANENT BETA)
Bert has been following trends in technology and society from different perspectives for more than a decade, first as a marketeer (Philips, Samsonite) and later as a marketing services professional at Valoris and Agency.com. An active new marketing evangelist, he regularly shares opinions and experiences in his popular blog www.ibert.be. IF YOUR READ THIS, YOU SHOULD KNOW ABOUT THE BLOG :)
HERE COME THE OBLIGATORY QUOTES (READ THEM, THEY'RE REAL, NO JOKING THIS TIME)
Bert Van Wassenhove: "I'm realizing my dream of building a company where communication, creativity and innovation are not only in the mission statement but where these values flow in the veins of each staff member. I come from a family of entrepreneurs, so I’m looking forward to this opportunity to spread my wings."
Jo Caudron, CEO of ONE Agency, states, "Apart from a solid dose of enthusiasm, Bert brings a vast amount of knowledge, experience and contacts in the world of new marketing. We are really looking forward to working with him to help lead new and existing customers to success in the new media revolution." (BLUSH)
Some over-the-lunch surfing and I bump into the new Telenet Portal: www.zita.be. Working for Telenet's agency I knew something was coming, and that the name would start with a "Z", but the launch kind of surprised me (in fact, I thought launch was tomorrow or so).
First impressions:
- Looks fresh, but not really timeless.
- Navigation is rather strange, if you click to a subsection the top level navigation disappears. (could this be bèta?)
- In the subsections designs seem to change somehow, again strange.
- The directory at the bottom is a cool idea.
But portals are so 'last year' (or was that last decade?) ;-)
On a philosophical note, developed being very tired and under the influence of a few drinks :).
Consider the fact that thanks to (due to?) social media, anybody who somewhat moves in the public space is under a kind of constant surveillance. We are often filmed or could be filmed by somebody with a mobile phone, conversations are recorded, pictures are taken and as a bare minimum there is always a blogger around who could report about what you said or did. Knowing this, people will think twice about what they do or say. The same goes for companies, whatever they say or do needs to be truthful and transparent because if not, it's just a matter of time before somebody finds out about the truth and publishes it on a blog.
So, are social media media making this world a better place? Is this the new GOD?
Is there a theologist, philosopher or professor in sociology out there who to dig a bit deeper into this?
Let's take this little extract from Wikipedia :
Theologians and philosophers have ascribed a number of attributes to God, including omniscience, omnipotence, omnipresence, perfect goodness, divine simplicity, and eternal and necessary existence. He has been described as incorporeal, a personal being, the source of all moral obligation, and the greatest conceivable existent.
Omniscience: Considering the wisdom of crowds one could say the connected community is the most all-knowing body I know of.
Omnipotence: It may sound like naive faith in social media but one could say there is no limit to the power of social media, but I must admit this is kind of a long shot.
Omnipresence: The web is probably the single most omnipresent entity on earth, not in the universe however.
Goodness: Well ... I guess there is just about as much badness in the network as anywhere else. So by that logic we may have stumbled across Devil 2.0 at the same time.
Simplicity: Social media as a concept is as simple as it gets.
Eternal: The Internet is probably not eternal, but I don't see the social connections being established through the net today ever fade away.
Necessary: The way social media developed through the net somehow tells me 'it had to be'.
Incorporeal: The net may be very physical when it comes to wires, servers and routers, but the dynamics of social networks are 100% incorporeal.
Moral obligation: Exactly what I wrote above.
I'm onto something ... I can feel it :)
Thank's Tom De Bruyne for calling me a Jaffy groupy :). I don't really consider myself a die-hard fan but last weekend in Gent at the "Stichting Marketing", Joseph delivered a great keynote speech. And it was not a simple re-hash of previous speeches. Of course a number of theme's come back all the time, but that's only logical. So I gladly accept to be called a Jaffe groupy today.
Here are some random highlights I noted down:
"Embrace the hate, fear the apathy and the indifference."
4 key drivers of what makes new marketing emerge:
- Broadband > In the sense of "always on"
- Wireless > Being mobile (in the toilet, travelling, etc.)
- Search > The ultimate opt-in, search happens on my terms (as a consumer)
- Network > Always connected to likeminded people
"Viral marketing is the lazy marketers' guide to new marketing."
And for the many people who have trouble understanding Joseph's South African accent combined with all the marketing newspeak, here is a small "Jaffe lingo for dummies":
- Second Life:
An online virtual world in which Joseph Jaffe started his agency called Crayon.
- Crayon: "Wascos"(in dutch), what kids use to color drawings.
- Crayola: The N°1 brand in for crayons in the US.
- Top of page: Showing up at the top of page of search results e.g. in Google
- Being above the fold: Same as of page, but high enough to be seen on a screen without having to scroll down. Refers to the fold of a letter you take out of an envelope.
- The funnel of trust: The long term process of winning consumer's trust
- The Tipping Point: Famous book by Malcom Gladwell who later wrote "Blink". The tipping point is the point at which things start spreading like a virus.
- The Wisdom of Crowds: another must-read book by James Surowiecki about how many people together are more intelligent then individuels.
- Web 2.0: Much disputed term for a number of new things happing online, ranging from technical gimmicks (e.g. Ajax) to the web as a catalyst for communities.
- Net Promotor Score: Another book to add to your library: The Ultimate Question. Jaffe explains the idea of net promotor score during his speech.
- Organicaly promoting a brand: Natural word of mouth, not induced by an award-mechanisme.
- Silent salesmen/women: People who organically promote your brand
- A million of my closest strangers: Today on the web people have very easy access to like-minded people, e.g. through a blog you can reach and influence many people without really knowing them.
- Lurker mode: Lurking means you read or listen in on a conversation (e.g. read blogs, listen to podcasts, etc.) without contributing yourself.
- Walk my talk: Not only talk about something but also do it in practice.
- Podshow: One of the leading "new media companies" mainly active in podcasting.
- Adam Curry: MTV VJ in the eighties, internet entrepreneur in the nineties and now considered the 'inventor' of podcasting ("The Podfather"). He's also the man behindshow together with Ron Bloom.
- Ron Bloom: Adam Curry's partner in crime at Podshow.
- Involvement and not interactivity: Take interactivity one step further, foreget about how many times people click, but consider what they are thinking when they click (or don't click).
- Tony Robbins: A well known motivational speaker.
- Comcast: A US Telco operator similar to Telenet in Belgium.
- VOD system: Video On Demand system
- Frappr: Cool website where you can stick yourself on a world map, try it out on this blog's Frappr map in the right column.
- A different ball of wax: Something completely different, similar to "A different ballgame".
- Mashup: A mix of different elements thus creating something new, can be a mashup of music, but also a mashup of internet services (e.g. a mashup of Google Maps and a list of houses for sales). Internet technology is ideally fit for creating online service mashups.
Here's where you can listen to the speech again and read more about the conference:
Joseph Jaffe at Stichting Marketing Keynote speech as a podcast
Stijn Vercamen covered the conference on De Standaard (in Dutch)
http://www.jaffejuice.com/
Later today I'll be writing up a summary of the conference for Digimedia .
I also had the opportunity to grab a few drinks with Joseph on thursday evening during the party at ONE. Robin Wauters from marketingblog.eu made some nice pics. And Joseph simply is a cool dude!
Yesterday I tried out another Google labs development: Google Page Creator. It's a basic online site building tool. It's basic but you could easily build a personal little site with it.
Mobilecrunch announced a cool feature. Any page/site you build is also accessible through mobile. And indeed, just fired up my phone, surfed to the page and it words. The tool automatically creates a mobile version that is automatically displayed when accessed through a mobile browser. Just tried it ... and it works (even on my crappy P990i).
The famous "red button" of interactive TV that allows you to interact with a commercial is finding it's way to adverting agencies in Belgium. But there is one thing that gets on my nerves. Although the medium is very new, the oldfashioned thinking and lack of respect for the people watching TV is striking. Let me explain ...
Interactive TV spots have to be scheduled at the END of a commercial block. Logic: If somebody decides to interact with the commercial, they would miss the rest of the adds and other advertisers would not appreciate that.
Now, people with a lot of experience in traditional advertising told me I shouldn't worry. In fact, the first adds in a block are apparently also not the best choice. Reason is that very few people see these adds as this is the time when everybody runs of to get a drink (or get rid of drink what they drunk). Not a big surprise, but interresting to hear this is commonly accepted in the traditional media industry.
So, voluntarily interacting with a good commercial (let's assume) rather then sitting through 3 more boring tooth paste commercials is not allowed by the media moguls, but missing the second part of your favourite TV show is not an issue. Sigh! Conclusion: these people are making TV for the advertisers, not for the consumers. Talking about disrespecting your audience.
I bet you the next research that's published on interactive TV will say that these new advertising ideas (you know, inviting people to interact with brand) are not a big succes.
A few days ago I participated in the Euroblog2007 survey. Are you in the communications industry? Take a few minutes to complete the survey.
Telco 2.0 is born!
I spent a few days in Morocco recently and had the opportunity to meet a number of fascinating people. Our host was Abdesslam Sijelmassi, together with his lovely wife Houda were great hosts. While we were getting acquainted we talked about each others business, and I discovered another great example of "The Long Tail" in practice.
Abdesslam stems from family of entrepreneurs with a big hart for their country and it's people. One of the activities Abdesslam oversees does the following:
Using mobile technology they are building a network op private phone shops. Not to sell phones, but offering phone calls at a low price. You have to know that in Morocco many people have a mobile phone just to receive calls. Calling out is way too expensive, so they look for a cheaper alternative where they can simply pay a few Dirham (local currency) and make call. This is also a way for people there to keep their budget under control.
Now, of course there are phone shops all over big towns, but these will not cover the whole city (especially not the poorer parts), and they are definitely not present is small rural communities. And that's where "IlaïCom" comes in with project LiajliCom.
What IlaïCom does is setting up a network of micro entrepreneurs with a low cost phone unit. That unit is sold to small entrepreneurs and they help them with microcredit (much like Nobel Prize winner Muhammad Yunus). One installation costs about € 400. Along with the phone and point of sale material (mainly a sign to put outside the shop), comes a phone credit of € 200 (included in the setup cost). People starting a unit get a microcredit, which allows them to start making money from day one. The unit is connected to the phone network though mobile technology which allows them be active even in remote rural areas. Everything is extremely easy to operate, among the customers there are 70 year old women who never used a phone before. Note that many of the entrepreneurs are illiterate.
Abdesslam is constantly building and improving the model. Phone credit is prepaid and coached by IlaïCom through a call center so entrepreneurs do not fall out of credit and business keeps running. This way they succeed in moving people from a poverty situation to what they call 'precarious' and those living in a precarious situation are lifted up to an acceptable standard of living.
Today they are working on some novel ideas to further build these micro businesses. Motorised wheelchairs with a unit attached allows handicapped people pay for their wheelchairs. Another direction is to seek synergies with other sectors such as fast moving consumer goods. They have build a phone unit that is completely Coke-branded (looks like a huge can of Coke). Coke may sponsor these units, and add a small fridge to the concept with a starter-kit of drinks. Thus allowing the shops to build also a business of fresh drinks, and some advertising income from Coke to pay for the phone equipment.
An idea very relevant to Belgium builds on the tradition of emigrated Moroccans to send part of the money they make in Europe to their families. IlaïCom is now looking for ways to convince these people to invest in a phone unit for their families in Morocco, and then add phone credit on a monthly basis. Adding the credit can be done fully automatically via the Internet.
I thought this was a very interesting story, combining business with social development of a country. However it wasn't until I put some numbers together that I realized that this a perfect example of "The Long Tail". Today there about 3500 IlaïCom phones spread over Morocco, and Abdesslam estimates there is potential for at least 100 000 units. They already represent a considerable share of Meditel's public phone turnover (Meditel is the N°2 telco operator in Morocco). And this is business they would never have had if it were not for IlaïCom. Just consider the huge untapped potential of all these people who have no access to telecommunications services because nobody bothers setting up a traditional phone store. Thanks to intelligent use of new technology, IlaïCom is opening up this market.
Anther typical feature of Long Tail markets is that we see mini-tails appear within the long tail. In general there is potential for a phone for every 3 to 500 people. But in each region there are 'top selling locations' such as those places where many trucks come by. These phone shops can even afford to install a second unit.
This is truly one of the most fascinating I came across in my life. It's a Long Tail story, with a sound economic model (people are making money here, no bubble) and at the same time it Morocco and it's people move forward and saves people from poverty.
We're off for a long weekend, guess where we're going and win a box of Belgian Chocolates (500 gr) from my wife's store.
1st Question: Which city are my wife an I off to?
Click the title of this post for a tip!
2nd Question: Els (my wife) will fill a box of 1 kg of Belgian chocolates. How many pieces will go in?
Answers in the comments please. Competitions ends on Tuesday Nov. 14th.
Not available in Europe untill early next year, but you can get a taste of the new PS3 through this impressive online experience. An old fashioned "we'll blow you away" website, but it does the job in blowing you away.
Produced by our collegues at TBWA in LA, still in beta I think as some parts are 'coming soon';
Tonight over a 1000 politicians (of which 200 members of parlement) will attend a collective viewing of Al Gore's film "An inconvenient truth" in Brussels. Among them also the Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstad.
The session is the result of an initiative taken by a engaged housewive, Margaretha Guidone, who acted on Al Gore's request to make as many as possible people see the movie. Motivated by the movie she started calling and emailing politicians and with the help of some non-profit organisations she chartered two theatres in the Brussels "Kinepolis" complex. By now over 200 members of parlement, several ministers and a large number of other politicians and influencers have agreed to attend.
The only problem she still has is lack of international press attention. How does a houswive from Belgium catch the attention of CNN and other international media? Maybe through blogs?
In any case, congratulations Margaretha! Way to go.
