Inside Column 7: Interactive marketing rules a world of digital experiences.

Interactive marketing rules a world of digital experiences.

The last few years we have been spoiled with all kinds of free online services. At first everybody wondered how long this model would stand. Because after the burst of the first Internet bubble, we all understood that a commercial activity is not sustainable unless there is a decent business model. My grandmother knew that already, if you want to spend money, there has to be an earnings side. Since the commercial success of Google's advertising platform however, everybody understands that if you have a real audience that is somewhat sizable, advertising can pay the bills.
With that issue solved, we can look at the future again. And it's full of opportunities.

Take a look at Microsoft, still the biggest consumer brand in the technology arena. They split there offering in four parts: Office, Xbox, Live and MSN. MSN gets all it's income through advertising, just like most other portals or news sites. On Windows Live there are no banners, but the search part uses a system similar to Google's to generate income through text adds. There are no plans to make Windows Live paying so here too the only source of income will be advertising. Xbox and office still live of traditional sales of hard- and software. But with in-game advertising we'll probably see the price of games going down in the future or maybe even become free. Sony Playstation will sell the PS3 at a loss and make profits from the games, the so-called loss leader principle. When the revenue from games comes partially (or completely) from games we may even get the hardware for free.
The same logic can be applied to applications like Word and Excel. Microsoft has no other choice if they want to win the battle against Google. Already today I'm preparing this post in Google Doc, a free online word processor and spreadsheet that offers enough features to replace about 90% of what I did with Word and Excel in the past.
And who pays the bill? I do ,with my loyal visits to Google where I give away a piece of my attention to advertisers on Google Search and Gmail, and in return I get a series of use full applications. This means that every online move ('digital experiences' I tend to call that nowadays) we make can be sponsored by one or the other organisation. And knowing that everything we do seems to be using Internet technology more and more, it is clear what today is called interactive advertising (a division of 'Real Advertising Inc.'), will be the only form of advertising tomorrow.

Our whole world with consist of digital experiences, from making a phone call to producing spreadsheets, from gaming to watching TV and from buying music to studying. Most of those activities will be free, in exchange for a piece of our attention for advertising. But it will be a very different form of advertising. Cool TV spots will be replaced by relevant experiences, intrusive mailings (on paper or electronically) will disappear in favor of honest and direct communication with brands and opt-in will become on-demand. The creativity with which a medium is used becomes as important as the creativity of the idea itself.

And all those digital experiences will also be the playing field of the advertising crowd, they will generate the revenues. So the future look complex but incredibly fascinating, and immensely big for anything digital.

Second Life meetup in Belgium (Gent)

Want to know more about Second Life or discuss about marketing possibilities? Come to Gent ... for the secondlifedemo.

Goodbye party ... the pictures (well ... kind of)

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:

Invitation to a party in Second Life

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:

Time chooses YOU as person of the year

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 :).

Inside Column 6: Tranparency and Authenticity

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!

Multitasking media in numbers

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

Thumb-vertising for Café Switch

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.

Quote van Noël Slangen

Uit ZENO (bijlage bij De Morgen) van dit weekend:
"Ik wordt niet warm of koud van goed bestuur. Het is vanzelfsprekend. Een bedrijf dat goed bestuurd wordt, wordt overgenomen door een bedrijf met visie."

Global share of internet add spending grow to 8,6% in 2009

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!

Yo guys & galls, I'm off to a new job at ONE Agency

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)

Telenet launches ZITA

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?) ;-)

God 2.0

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 :)

Confessions of a Jaffe groupy

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!