Bert Van Wassenhove

How to build a social strategy

2011-06-10T08:27:00.000+02:00

Nice summary on how to build a social marketing strategy. Thanks for sharing Steven.

How diageo's digital strategy started?

View more presentations from steven van belleghem

Social media tools don’t buy happiness ...

2011-06-01T12:01:00.001+02:00

But they’re very useful. Of course the essence of social media marketing and conversation management is not in boxing everything neatly in one or the other tool. Successful marketing and communication is more then ever about content, creativity, the message. Not software ... but it helps.

Those who still remember the days when the internet was associated with whistling modems must have another déja vue these days. Last century it was common practice to build your own tools to develop and maintain websites, which gave us loads of content management systems. Books were written about it, studies made and conferences organised, resulting in a landscape so complex you needed a consultant to guide you through.

Today they are back, the tools. Not to build websites but to shape your strategy and to be a good conversation manager. Solutions come in all shapes and sizes, as social media are a lot more complexe then your own websites. On one hand you need to manager different platforms and on the other hand you want to follow and interact with over 500 million people on Facebook alone. Not a simple task, so you’ll need more then one solution.

Now, how do we find our way in these hundreds of tools? Let’s split them up in a number of categories. This is - again - not as straightforward as it may seem because every tool seems to take a different angle to managing social media. I prefer to split social media management platforms along the logic of the steps that are often used to set out a social media strategy:
1. Listen
2. Engage
3. Act

In the “Listen” phase we first of all need social media tracking tools. This can range from a simple and free Google Alerts to a very advanced Radian6 of the recently launched Engagor. But also your own site analytics software (e.g. Google Analytics) falls into this category as it allows you to measure the effect social media on the visits to your site. And then there are also those sites that measure your performance in social media such as the Klout (which is in itself subject to much controversy).

Once you have clear view on the ongoing conversations it’s time to step into the conversation yourself. But there are many channels and many participants in the conversation both inside and outside the company. So a traditional content management system or a CRM tool will not do the job. That’s why we see a number of social media engagement tools appear such a Hootsuite.

Now comes the time for some real action. Claim, maintain and promote your own piece of social media territory. This is the least developed part of this emerging industry. There are a number of solutions that allow you to manage Facebook pages, and a number of existing CMSystems work on plugins to integrate with the large social media platforms. When it comes to tools for launching social media campaigns we look forward to what Spreadid wil offer, a soon-to-launch Belgian initiative (in which I’m a stakeholder).

But as already indicated in the beginning, tools are but a means to help. Succes in social media only comes with the correct message, the exact tone of voice and of course a smart strategy.

Mini-interview at Fusion Marketing Experience with Jim Ducharme

2011-03-30T16:44:00.000+02:00

Square Melon was one of the proud main sponsors of the Fusion Marketing Experience in March 2011. This is a mini-interview Jim did with me. More video's to come (with more content :) )

The internet is disappearing

2011-03-13T10:49:00.001+01:00

My Tweetathlon for Music For Life #itweetforlife

2010-12-24T15:56:00.000+01:00

Over the last days I've on a small Tweetathlon after my fellow-greyhound @guidooohh challenged me not to mention Square Melon during 40 (relevant) tweets and before the end of Music for life. And it has been a remarkable experience. Here are a few things I learned.

- It takes quite an effort to publish 40 tweets in about 3 days, but it's more the logistics of publishing them that was a drag (copy, paste, shorten message, shorten URL, get in the correct hash tags).
- On the other hand, findin inspiration was not so difficult. Although today (day before Christmas) the constant flow of content online seriously slowed down.
- I took pride in making all (well most) tweets relevant. Either by putting out a message or linking to an interesting online item. However, this is not a guarantee for a lot of reactions or retweets. Hence this tweet I sent out this morning:
Nihilism is the ultimate social media conversation magnet (hier net te plaatse in team bedacht) #36 #itweetforlife

But since I'm kind of proud of my work, here is the full list of 40 tweets:
http://search.twitter.com/search?q=%23itweetforlife

ibert Bert Van Wassenhove

(*) Square Melon ... What will they think of next #hetwaswelmoeilijk #itweetforlife #mfl10 @guidooohh en de rest: Fijne Feesten Gewenst!

ibert Bert Van Wassenhove

The Power of Twitter in Information Discovery http://ht.ly/3u6tX #39 #itweetforlife

guidooohh guido everaert

@ibert ok, ok, i av lost... Dokken dus...#itweetforlife #mfl10

ibert Bert Van Wassenhove

How Santa Lost Control of His Branding #37 #itweetforlife
http://ht.ly/3u4vh

ibert Bert Van Wassenhove

My Pummelvision video is ready, enjoy my life in Facebook foto's http://ht.ly/3u4sL

#37 #itweetforlife

ibert Bert Van Wassenhove

Nihilism is the ultimate social media conversation magnet (hier net te plaatse in team
bedacht) #36 #itweetforlife

ibert Bert Van Wassenhove

OK, one more Christmas video ... Tron! http://ht.ly/3u4iE #35 #itweetforlife

ibert Bert Van Wassenhove

The Star Wars Christmas edition to round up the list #34 #itweetforlife http://ht.ly/3u3Tn

ibert Bert Van Wassenhove

And more Christmas mellowness, here are the Chipmunks? #33 #itweetforlife http://ht.ly/3u3KZ

ibert Bert Van Wassenhove

Stepping up the Christmas mellowness with some TV classics, do you remember Alf? #1987 #weep
#32 #itweetforlife http://ht.ly/3u3Hi

ibert Bert Van Wassenhove

Vind een vent zoals je schoenen kiest, franse dating site lanceert zich http://ht.ly/3u3wo
#31 #itweetforlife

ibert Bert Van Wassenhove

Schrik om te rijden in de sneeuw? Maybe the dog can help http://ht.ly/3u3mv #30 #itweetforlife

ibert Bert Van Wassenhove

Cool app: Beluga helps groups of friends stay in touch. Vanavond eens testen rond de
feesttafel. http://ht.ly/3u3h2 #29 #itweetforlife

ibert Bert Van Wassenhove

Een digitaal kerstverhaal ... http://ht.ly/3u3b9 #28 #itweetforlife

ibert Bert Van Wassenhove

Waar zit de Kerstman? Norad en Google helpen ... http://ht.ly/3u32P #27 #itweetforlife

ibert Bert Van Wassenhove

Make the ringtone the message, great campaign from Guatemala (practice you Spanish) http://ht.ly/3u2Ua #26 #itweetforlife

ibert Bert Van Wassenhove

Looking forward to see my life flash before my eyes:
Pummelvision.com http://bit.ly/euIkdS
#25 #itweetforlife

ibert Bert Van Wassenhove

Oudenaarde > Antwerpen - 75km - 1uur what's the
problem? #23 #itweetforlife

ibert Bert Van Wassenhove

Het heeft nauwelijks gesneeuwd in O-VL, je kan gerust de baan op. Snap niet waarom De
Lijn daar problemen heeft #22 #itweetforlife #radio1

guidooohh guido everaert

@VLRik mocht het daar stoppen, ik zou hem nog vriend kunnen noemen #goresmeerlapperij
#itweetforlife // cc @ibert

guidooohh guido everaert

@ibert platte chantage kan eigenlijk ook hè... ik zou dingen kunnen vertellen over je, die

misschien wel 50 euro waard zijn #itweetforlife

ibert Bert Van Wassenhove

Ted.com launches: Ads Worth Spreading http://ht.ly/3tAMY #21 #itweetforlife

ibert Bert Van Wassenhove

Where there's a panic, there's an opportunity http://ht.ly/3tAD6
#20 #itweetforlife

ibert Bert Van Wassenhove

Beautiful experiments about Internet gifts and stolen pixels. #19 #itweetforlife http://ht.ly/3tAzQ

ibert Bert Van Wassenhove

Unconventional rules of post-digital marketing: don't share & encourage, incentivize &
convert #18 #itweetforlife

ibert Bert Van Wassenhove

Unconventional rules of post-digital marketing: don't just use the complete web, there's life

in the real world too #17 #itweetforlife

ibert Bert Van Wassenhove

Unconventional rules of post-digital marketing: don't make it easy, make it worthwhile #16 #itweetforlife

ibert Bert Van Wassenhove

Unconventional rules of post-digital marketing: don't stay in conversation at all cost, shut
up if not relevant #15 #itweetforlife

ibert Bert Van Wassenhove

Unconventional rules of post-digital marketing: don't offer tools, add value #14 #itweetforlife

ibert Bert Van Wassenhove

Wat worden de gadgets van volgend jaar? http://ht.ly/3tAeq #itweetforlife #13

ibert Bert Van Wassenhove

Die van Path komen toch altijd met een interessante insteek voor hun Social Netw
applicatie #itweetforlife #11 http://tcrn.ch/fesmJz

guidooohh guido everaert

Beste mensen vraag @ibert nu eens hoe dat zit met Amphion en
ontlok hem het woord... Iets met square en lemon #itweetforlife

ibert Bert Van Wassenhove

We gaan eens een tweet demarrageke inzetten, wat geld uit @guidooohh
zijn zakken slaan voor #mfl10 #itweetforlife #11

ibert Bert Van Wassenhove

Betaalt 1,5 EUR toeristenbelasting en vraagt zich af wat ik daarvoor krijg van
"A" #itweetforlife #10

ibert Bert Van Wassenhove

#9 Think I'm a Pussycat Doll fan, do you

still love me? http://yfrog.com/h092fcj
#itweetforlife #mfl10

ibert Bert Van Wassenhove

#8 About fruit & technology, and I'm not making a mistake here ... http://youtu.be/kAG39jKi0lI
#itweetforlife #MFL10

ibert Bert Van Wassenhove

#7 Is a bed in the Hilton big enough for me and my ego? #partytonight #itweetforlife #MFL10

ibert Bert Van Wassenhove

#7 Zijn dat de mensen van de helpdesk die die wishes inzingen voor Electrabel? http://bit.ly/hnxOgz #itweetforlife #MFL10

ibert Bert Van Wassenhove

#6 Location based chat roulette (no video unfortunately) http://bit.ly/eRfM6n #itweetforlife #MFL10

ibert Bert Van Wassenhove

#5 Some arty stuff to kick off the day http://aol.it/g7KLzk #itweetforlife #MFL10

ibert Bert Van Wassenhove

#4 Did you know Adam Curry is Podcasting cool music again? #itweetforlife #MFL10 http://bit.ly/eW5EPt

guidooohh guido everaert

@ibert zijt ge daar alleen of zijn er nog snaken van 't bedrijf? #3 #itweetforlife

ibert Bert Van Wassenhove

#3 Een specialleke voor #itweetforlife Veel volk hier! — at Het Glazen Huis http://gowal.la/c/3beaa

guidooohh guido everaert

@rik_lagey help mij,'t is hard tegen hard...hij mag niet meer vierkante citroen in
zijn tweets vermelden @ibert #itweetforlife #MFL10

guidooohh guido everaert

@ibert excuseer, in het overigens goede artikel staat al een tag naar uw X,
gaan we zo beginnen? #itweetforlife #MFL10 http://bit.ly/eaTYj0

ibert Bert Van Wassenhove

#2 Follow the WikiLeaks river of news (tx Dave Winer) http://bit.ly/ev52U0

#itweetforlife #MFL10

ibert Bert Van Wassenhove

#1 Zal ik eens beginnen met de trends van 2011, in't Nederlands #itweetforlife #MFL10

http://bit.ly/eaT

Cool inspiration for an interactive book we're working on

2010-12-14T10:02:00.003+01:00

Great 4D outdoor projection by Ralph Lauren in New York

2010-11-19T08:11:00.002+01:00

You work with the internet, but don't understand the techies at your agency? Read this.

2010-11-19T08:04:00.000+01:00

Google has build a nice little online book explaining web technology. Anybody in the internet industry should probably know all of this, but refreshing your memory never hurts. This is particularly interesting if you work with digital agencies (like us) and you don't alway understand why some things are difficult and others are easy.

Check out "20 things I learned about browsers and the web"

Social Media Marketing

2010-10-10T10:42:00.000+02:00

In anticipation of the iPad launch in Belgium, my favorite iPad Apps

2010-07-06T18:04:00.000+02:00

Over the coming months iPads will flood the Belgian market, and to anticipate the questions I'll be getting on "which apps to download", here is my favourites list:
- Amazon Kindle - ebook reading
- Air Video - stream video from a mac on your network
- Epicurious - interactive e-cookbook
- Evernote - turns your iPad into a notepad that syncs with iPhone and laptop
- Adobe Ideas - a cool sketch pad for the iPad
- Wired - the only real iPad magazine that get the concept
- Comics - in case you like comics
- Air Sharing - gives access to all your documents over the network (e.g. laptop) or in the cloud (e.g. Gmail)
- Gowalla - even more location based fun
- Goskywatch - who needs a telescope anyway
- Fish Pond - harmless entertainment
- Cool Hunting - man, I'm so trendy
- Pulse News - the coolest RSS reader around
- Soundhound - music maestro
- Aurora feint 3 - addictive game
- Alice Lite - the future of books

YSL Manifesto, like this

2010-04-26T10:30:00.000+02:00

Advertising in a connected and open world does not have to be boring, clearly ...

What you might read about 2010 in 12 to 24 months

2010-01-02T10:00:00.001+01:00

After about a decade of discussion and failed initiatives the "online identity" issue was finally solved when Microsoft bought Twitter. Since then 80% of the internet population uses their Twitter-name to log on to their e-mail, the online version of Microsoft Office and all other websites based on Microsoft technology. "@myname" has become the new universal way to identify people, and now we can use online banking applications with it, consult healthcare data and get access the popular events such as the MTV awards.

Shortly thereafter Microsoft rolled out the first real behaviour-based promotion campaign for Axe, the popular deodorant by Unilever. A sharp target group was defined: single heterosexual males aged between 16 and 32 with an average household income of +- 32% around the median of the their country. Those who live within a 50 kilometer radius of a shop that carries Axe in their assortment were by means of Twitter involved in the biggest sampling action ever. The campaign was a huge success, 100 million consumers were thrilled and had themselves spoiled by Axe.

Shortly after the campaign went live, President Obama expressed his concern about the privacy aspects of these new marketing techniques. To avoid that Microsoft would abuse their newly acquired power, they were forced to sell 25% of their shares at a reduced price to the United Nations, which means they acquire total control over the company.

In the meantime a once leading worldwide media group has sold the majority of their shares to Microsoft in an ultimate attempt to avoid bankruptcy. All publications were migrated to a new digital media-store that is only accessible through Windows-based tablet computers and e-readers.

Facebook continued their succes and were the only real online power standing up to the Microsoft-Twitter tandem. But success took its toll. The company was forced to open up their databases to the European Union after a terrorist attack whereby European President Herman Van Rompuy only just escaped from death. The "European Defence Agency" invested in startup company Attentio and uses their technology to permanently monitor potentially dangerous activities on Facebook.

Now that privacy online seems to have totally disappeared, the geek-community is looking for ways to stay in contact online but out of sight of Big Brother. Read more about the result of this quest in upcoming articles ...

Prezi presentation on Social Media Sessions #4

2009-09-29T19:00:00.003+02:00

Yesterday we had the fourth edition of our "Social Media Sessions" and I'm really starting to get into Prezi. Especially as the presentation is now "portable" through embedding, as you can see below.

The video of the session will be available soon on the social media sessions site.

Fascinated by how SAP embraces the concepts of social networking

2009-07-08T17:21:00.001+02:00

In fact it's Business Object, which was recently acquired by SAP, who is building tools that take the concepts of social networking into a business to business environment. Check out this video, not exactly what you need in a 35-person agency, but a real efficiency boost for large corporations.

Wolfram Alfa thinks I might be Eisenhower

2009-05-17T12:53:00.001+02:00

I still have to discover the true power of Wolfram Alfa, but it's kinda fun to play with.

Rounding up the Tesla test findings ...

2009-04-21T07:10:00.001+02:00

The Tesla test drive was organised at the occasion of the "Top Marques" show where a line up of super cars were put on display. The relatively small room (for a car show that is) was packed with Aston Martin's, Lambo's, concept cars and tuned models ranging from Bentleys to an old Mini. Among all of these wide-bodied dreamcars the Tesla roadster looked like a go-cart somebody had foregotten. It's a good looking little car but not impressive at all compared to e.g. the Koenigsegg. However, the Tesla was the only series build (20 pieces per day) full electric car on the show.

The Tesla roadster is based on the Lotus Elise, hence the similar look. Because the car has been redesigned completely to house the electric motor and batteries, the production model today only has about 10% Lotus blood left. Still, a 1,86m guy like me needs to demonstrate some flexibility to get in. Once seated however the two-seater is quite comfortable. Switching on the engine takes a small procedure with the brake pushed down (turn key, wait for car to wake up, twist key once, no sound), next shift into gear (one gear only) and you're ready to roll. And this is where an amazing experience started.

I let go of the brake and the car slowly rolled away without making a sound. Gliding into the city traffic passing a line-up of muscle cars we once again remained unnoticed. Everybody looked at the guy desperately trying to keep the engine of the Lamborgini running while he moved the thing off the parking and at the same time one of the many Ferraris in the traffic jam competed for even more noise. And the Tesla, the Tesla whisked by like a ghost. Appart from the tough steering at low speeds (no comfortable assistence) the roadster is child's play to drive. Push down the peddle and it rolls, take off your foot and it slows down quickly while using the energy to charge the batteries again.

Out of the traffic and on to a deserted uphill road the Tesla really came to life. This is when the go-cart transformed into a bumper car on speed. Do you remember that feeling sliding back in your seat when your dad took you in the bumper cars for the first time, well that's exactly what you feel when you hit the gas (well, electricity) launching the Tesla. The electric engine gives 100% torque from the first instance, and that is an amazing experience for someone used to revving up a combustion engine to get it to it's optimal torque level. Good thing the traction controll kept me right where I wanted to be (in the first lane). In seconds the sports car hit the 100km/h mark and the only sound I heard was wind, fabulous.

It feels like this is what cars were always meant to be. Everything about the Tesla is logical and simple. Torque when you need it, no noise, no pollution. No mechanical parts so the the engine is expected to keep up for about a million kilometers. Maintenance is only really needed to check stuff like suspension, tires, etc. The only weak point is the battery, although Tesla has done a decent job. It lasts for about 340km and is recharged in 3,5 hours. Largely sufficient for say 90% of the time. But it will not take you to the South of France and after 5 years or 150 000 kilometers it needs to be replace (at a 10 000 euro cost). But at the same time you only consume 10 euro of electricity to get a full battery.

So am I going to buy a Tesla? I guess I will. I'm almost sure I'll go for the Model S but if I can find a way to finance it, I would love to get my hands on a roadster. Of course the roadster is a great car for spoiled car lovers, not your friend for daily commutes. The Model S however, will be considerably cheaper and offer everything a good housefather needs. I just need to decide what I want to be ...

Posted via email from My Tesla

It's like a botsauto on speed

2009-04-18T13:42:00.001+02:00

Sent from my iPhone

Posted via email from My Tesla

Intermezzo voor @macnax

2009-04-18T13:38:00.001+02:00

Sent from my iPhone

Posted via email from My Tesla

Charging a Tesla

2009-04-18T13:22:00.001+02:00

Sent from my iPhone

Posted via email from My Tesla

Tesla findings

2009-04-18T13:19:00.001+02:00

An amazing experience impossible to show in pics, not even in video I'm afraid.

More later ...

Sent from my iPhone

Posted via email from My Tesla

This is out baby ...

2009-04-18T13:14:00.001+02:00

Sent from my iPhone

Posted via email from My Tesla

Tesla competitor eRUF

2009-04-18T12:25:00.001+02:00

UK product avalable in 2010

Posted via email from My Tesla

Eentje voor @macnax

2009-04-18T12:16:00.001+02:00

Posted via email from My Tesla

Tesla spotted on Top Marques fair

2009-04-18T12:06:00.001+02:00

Test drive confirmed around 13h

Sent from my iPhone

Posted via email from My Tesla

First car pics ...

2009-04-18T10:11:00.001+02:00

Well, we wanted a cool rental car ...

Sent from my iPhone

Posted via email from My Tesla

Mentally preparing for the Tesla testride at 13:00hr

2009-04-18T08:31:00.001+02:00

Check out this video on YouTube:

Posted via email from My Tesla

Testing Tesla

2009-04-17T12:06:00.001+02:00

Ever since Tesla launched I liked their approach. Electricity is the perfect energy source for cars if you can store enough of it, and it seems Tesla has found the right formula.

After the launch of the rather expensive roadster (104 000 USD) they are now preparing a new, more affordable model: Tesla Models S. At 50 000 USD it's still not cheap, but acceptable compared to similar cars in the market. So that's why I'm seriously considering buying one. Well, reserving one is the right word because they will only be available end of 2011.

So, this weekend I'm heading for France to go test-drive the Tesla Roadster, and ask the guys there some questions before I pay 4000 or even 20 000 euro to reserve a Model S. Here are some things I want to find out, if you have questions yourself, just add them in the comments or twitter them:

Is the battery life guaranteed if I drive to the full potential of the car (= fast)?
How fast does it charge on regular current (220V)?
Will the Model S (and Roadster) be approved for Europe and/or Belgium? (In other words, will I have to go through tedious import procedures?)
...

Follow the testing live through on Twitter (www.twitter.com/ibert), on this blog or on my regular blog www.ibert.be.

Posted via email from My Tesla

This expert shows he knows all about high tech weapons, but nothing about the people they kill

2009-04-04T12:17:00.000+02:00

I was reading this interview on TED with P.W. Singer and the disrespectful way he talks about the people in Pakistan really shows what kind of morons are planning and organizing wars with our money. We have come so far that we kill people on the other side of the planet without even seeIng them, but it's very efficient mr. Singer says ...
Just read along what he has to say about local leaders:

"I had a conversation with a person from our Special Ops who talked to the tribal leaders in Pakistan. In a meeting, he served American cookies to one of these leaders -- turns out this guy had never had cookies before! He loved them. But this tribal leader also said America was working with the devil, that we were using black magic. Of course someone who hasn’t even been exposed to cookies is going to think an unmanned flying drone is black magic!"

So the fact that this man had never eaten American cookies before makes him a caveman or what? As if American cookies are the ultimate sign of civilization. What's the next level, a Mc Donald's along the Khyber Pass? It really doesn't matter what kind of magic he sees in those flying murder machines. Your drones, mr. Singer, are killing people halfway around the world without looking them in the eyes. Wouldn't it be a better idea to go there and talk with the people of Pakistan and Afghanistan? Learn something about the way they think, what their values are and what kind of desserts they eat. Probably not cookies but rather kheer, which you probably never tried before. And if there is really no other way and you still have the courage to kill some of those people, maybe you should go ahead ... maybe.

When the economy comes to a stand-still ... this is NOT how to react

2009-04-02T21:35:00.001+02:00

But it's funny :)

Fun met AudioBoo en Glowbox

2009-03-19T11:32:00.000+01:00

Listen!

Creative twittering

2009-02-04T15:56:00.003+01:00

Got to love this creative angle towards twittering:

Hulu is evil, great superbowl commercial

2009-02-03T10:51:00.001+01:00

I spent a trillion dollars, but I'm not going to tell you where ...

2009-01-17T16:41:00.001+01:00

What the hell is going on there? At least Belgium is small enough so they can't hide what goes on with our money (... I hope).

Cloud tools for cool websites

2009-01-15T21:39:00.002+01:00

I've been working on my hobbysite www.mototravel.be over the last months, and found a number of practical "cloud-based" tools that have a surprisingly high level of professionality at a low cost or completely for free.

Here's my favourites list:

Mad Mimi email marketing

What: A tool with limited features but everything you really need for sending out professional emailings and following up on results.

Highlights:
- Embedable registration forms for your site
- Wonderfull drag and drop interface for building mailings
- Seamless integration with google analytics configured in literaly 6 seconds
Cost: Variable depending on the number addresses stored
URL: http://madmimi.com/

Animoto

What: Builds great looking slideshow-movies based on a set of pictures you upload, wich can then be embedded on the site.
Highlights:
- Get the same presentation in HD at a small cost
- Add royalty free music in a click
- If you pics are somewhat chronological you can really tell a story (e.g. unpack party )
Cost: Free for web-use, pay for high quality movies
Site: http://animoto.com/

Addthis

What: An embedable button for bookmarking the site on all major social sites.
Highlights:
- Also includes a send to a friend link
- Provides stats on clicks and what people use this link for
Cost: Free
Site: http://www.addthis.com/

Yuntaa.com

What: An online storage solution that gives you loads of space and great sharing features. Also comes in handy to backup you complete disk:
- First 1 Gig is free, unlimited space if you need it
- Yuntaa manager automatically backs up your complete disk (Windows only)
Cost: Free under 1 Gig, 9,99 euro/month for unlimited space
Site: http://www.Yuntaa.com/

Routeyou.com

What: A routing tool that makes it easy to map out a tourist (car, bike, foot) and add information to this route. Next the route can be embedded in your site.
Highlights:
- Shows icons with additional information you added, including pictures
- Shows a graph with altitude differences
- Has intelligence build-in to automatically choose the most interresting route for your
Cost: Free
Site: http://www.routeyou.com

Lefore.com

What: A hosted forum solution with a reasonable number of customisation possibilities.
Highlights:
- Setup procedure takes about 10 minutes
- Has a traditional look but also a more modern look that is more upto today's standards.
Cost: Free, but they include google ads so it's difficult to add your own
Site: http://www.lefora.com/

Google docs integration

What: Use pages you update through Google Docs in your site by including the HTML published version of that page.
Higlights:
- Take advantage of the collaboration power of Google Docs to update your site with multiple people
- Changes happen instantly, no "publish-process" needed.
- I use RapidWeaver as a webbuilding tool and it has a plugin that used the API to included Google Docs pages seamlessly.
Cost: Free
Site: http://docs.google.com

Google analytics

What: Professional visitor statistics for your website
Highlights:
- Advanced segments let you compare the behaviour of different types of visitor groups
- Seamless integration with Mad Mimi
Cost: Free
Site: http://www.google.com/analytics/

Google maps

What: Embed maps of whatever in the world on your site.
Highlights:
- Choose map or sattelite picture integration
Cost: Free
Site: http://maps.google.com/

YouTube & Vimeo

What: Host your movies for free and embed them in your site.

Highlights:

- Profit from the traffic on these sites to promoto your stuff and attract traffic to your site. I guess YouTube is better for this, but Vimeo has better quality and a nicer player to embed.

Cost: Free
Site: http://www.youtube.com http://www.vimeo.com/

+ some revenue generators

- Google Adsense
- Bol.com ads
- Tradedoubler ads
- Amanzon.co.uk ads

Twitter isn't always as interresting

2009-01-08T08:05:00.002+01:00

Ask me a question ... maar niet in 't Nederlands

2009-01-07T15:16:00.000+01:00

The new year brought two changes to my blogging life:

I've made a second blog in dutch, so I can quickly publish anything I write in Dutch for other purposes without having to go through the hassle of translating everything. Check it out: iBert in het Nederlands
I added a cool widget from Mahalo (one of my favourite web companies). Check out the sidebar of this blog and ask me a question. How it works I have not really figured out but I think the questions are also stored (and accessible) at Mahalo.com. And so are the answers of course.

This is where the Christmas e-card went wrong ...

2008-12-24T09:11:00.003+01:00

My mailbox is overloaded with Christmas wishes, mostly standard e-cards or links to cool movies. Nothing wrong with that, but when such a standard animated card comes with a disclaimer like this at the bottom, I once again realize that lawyers are not helpfull in makting this a better world:

Important Note: This E-Mail is confidential, it must not be read, copied, disclosed or used by any person other than the above named addressees. Unauthorised use, disclosure or copying is strictly prohibited and may be unlawful. Xxxxxxx (U.K.) Limited and Xxxxxxx Group Limited disclaim any liability for any action taken in reliance on the content of this E-Mail. The comments or statements expressed in this E-Mail are not necessarily those of Xxxxxxx (U.K.) Limited, Xxxxxxx Group Limited or any subsidiaries or affiliates of either company. Xxxxxxx (U.K.) Ltd. Registered Office: Xxxxxxx VAT No. GB Xxxxxxx Xxxxxxx Group Ltd. Registered office: Xxxxxxx, Registered in England No. Xxxxxxx VAT No. GB Xxxxxxx

So basically, company Xxxxxxx is NOT wishing me all the best for 2009 or what? And by copying this phrase, I may be acting unlawfully?

Well, all the best to you all and have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year as we tend to say around here (in't Vlaams dan wel)!

Slim down those RSS feeds

2008-12-16T20:29:00.000+01:00

Geeks - like me - can't stop complaining on how hard it is te keep up with RSS feeds, but still we keep singing the praise of this 'diamond in the rough'. In the rough because the mainstream public still has not picked up RSS feeds, dispite the efforts of many mainstream media (e.g. newspapers) who include a newsfeed on their site. Most news sites even have several 'thematic' feeds.

But I have not subscribed to any of these. My RSS reader is filled mainly with individual blogs. One blog that has been in-and-out several times is TechCrunch. Great news, but way too much to consume if you're not spending 50% of your day keeping up with the latest on innovation, startups and social media stuff. It looks like they're slowly adopting the mistakes mainstream media make ...

So why don't I subscribe to regular newspaper feeds? Because they copied their paper/website logic to RSS feeds without adapting it to the medium. As a result, you get long lists of news articles with no difference between front-page news and a small article at the back of the newspaper.

I see a number of solutions:

1. Make a manual sort of are the most important articles and put it in a separate feed.
2. Make a feed based on articles that have been read online a certain number of times (e.g. the top 20%), or do the same based on user ratings.
3. Make feeds based on personal editor picks, could be journalists or users.

Mr. editor in chief, please help RSS to become the success it deserves to be.

Startup Geography in Belgium

2008-12-03T07:46:00.004+01:00

Crunchvision shows a geographical view on where startups are located worldwide. It's interresting to see that in Belgium the local spread is somewhat counter-intuitive. Brussels is obviously n°1 with 15 startups but Gent is a close next with 9. However the ever-hip-and-trendy city of Antwerp ties with the innovative region around Hasselt with both 3 startups. Nie pleuje!

The "mapeed" feature on this map is great (French startup). When zooming out, the different flags on the map are aggregated into labels that show the number of startups in that region. This means you can zoom in and out and get a relevant view on every level. Unfortunately the detailed information when clicking on one startup flag does not show up, so I can't check which ones exactly are shown here.

Best Meneer De Crem, ik ben gevaarlijk ...

2008-11-30T10:13:00.002+01:00

- Once a year I get so annoyed by local politics I need to write it of me. So this is my annual post in Dutch. If you want to read what it's about, check out this blogpost which gives a summary of the facts in English -

Ok, hier komen mijn 5 cent in het "De Crem (ook bekend als Crembo) versus de blogosfeer" debacle.

Toegegeven, ik ben nooit een fan geweest van de man omwille van twee redenen. Enerzijds gebruikt hij zijn ministerpost om in het gevlij te komen van de elite die onze wereld bestuurt. Daarbij worden onze militairen (gewone mensen zoals U en ik) op risico van eigen leven uitgestuurd om onschuldige Afghanen te gaan afschrikken met laagvliegende F16 vliegtuigen zogenaamd om "Al Qaeda" te gaan uitroken. Weet dat "Al Qaeda" een codenaam is die de CIA gebruikt voor de database met internationale vrijheidsstrijders (Mujaheddin), niet noodzakelijk moslims. Volgens mij staat de server met die database niet in één of ander Afghaans dorp of grot.
Ook als persoon ligt meneer De Crem mij niet zo. Telkens als ik hem zie dan interpreteert hij zijn rol als defensieminister in de zin dat hij zich als mens defensief moet opstellen. Als Frieda Van Wijck hem met een kwinkslag een vraag stelt antwoord hij alsof zijn grootste vijand gevraagd heeft met wie zijn vrouw het allemaal doet.

Het is net dat stukje van de man zijn persoonlijkheid dat de voorbije week volop aan bod kwam, in het parlement nog wel. OK Pieter, je strompelt met een flink stuk in je kraag een café binnen, daar is niets mis mee hoor. Het is mij ook al overkomen en die verhalen doen nog steeds de ronde op feestjes, maar ik kan daar mee leven. Of het nu een snoepreisje of een zakenreis was moet iemand anders maar uitzoeken (het zal wel iets tussen de twee geweest zijn), en dat kan je zeker wel uitleggen, als je wil.

Maar omdat een studente in New York daar tamelijk objectief verslag over uitbrengt, tegen alle deontologische regels van het barmeid-schap in, hoeft het belangrijkste democratische communicatie middel van de het moment - de blog - nog niet de kop van jut te zijn.

Blogs zijn gevaarlijk voor mensen die niet open en oprecht zijn, dus wat dat betreft voel je je terecht in het nauw gedreven. Maar je vertelde in het parlement dat "iedereen potentieel slachtoffer is", en dat klopt dus niet. Enkel wie ter kwader trouw is of zijn verantwoordelijkheid niet wil of kan opnemen loopt het risico ontmaskerd te worden.

En er is heel veel controle op blogs. Jij hoeft enkel verantwoording af te leggen voor een paar honderd parlementsleden die voor een groot deel in hetzelfde schuitje zitten en er dus geen belang bij hebben je écht in je blootje te zetten. Bloggers leggen verantwoording af aan de ganse wereld. Je zal misschien gemerkt hebben dat er zo iets bestaat als commentaren. Gebruik gerust het veldje onderaan deze post om je mening te geven.

Het is volgens jou onmogelijk je te verdedigen tegen de blogosfeer. Dat is zoveel als zeggen dat je je niet kan verdedigen tegen het volk dat je vertegenwoordigd en de kiezers die je verkozen hebben. Er zijn tal van manieren om wat over je geschreven word te nuanceren, bij te sturen, om ook jouw visie aan het debat toe te voegen. Er zijn zelfs mensen die daar vandaag hun full time job van maken. Als je bereid bent om met open visier je werkgevers (de Belgische belastingbetalers) te woord te staan wil ik je zelfs zelf gratis adviseren.

Onthoud éen ding, telkens als iemand aan de macht komt die vind dat vrijheid van meningsuiting een gevaarlijk goed is, wordt niemand daar beter van.

Fun with tikitag @ TechCrunch Meetup in Belgium

2008-11-21T09:05:00.001+01:00

tikitag moonlander for techcrunch from ONE Agency on Vimeo.

Why you should vote for RTBF.be in the CMS awards

2008-11-17T09:03:00.003+01:00

Time for some shameless self-promotion, but it's for a good cause.

The CMS awards reward the best cms-driven websites in Belgium, and we entered RTBF.BE as ONE Agency. Here are three good reasons to vote for RTBF.BE:

It's a great site, probably the best news-site in French speaking Belgium (and judging from the stats also other French speaking countries).
It's has a great - Belgian - CMS (Drupal), probably one of the most actively used Drupal implementations worldwide (like in ... changes every 10 minutes on average)
It has a nifty flash back-office, probably the easiest way for an editor to "drag & drop" the news on the site taking it from all kinds of sources that produce the content. Unfortunately we can't give you access to that back-office but I can assure you, it works!

Now go VOTE! for RTBF.BE

Clouseau: What a disaster

2008-11-13T07:49:00.005+01:00

The Belgian pop-group Clouseau has launched a so-called interactive clip. This is my experience as a consumer:

I hear about the clip that is said to allow me to choose from different camera points in a house and even zoom in on details "without losing quality". Sounds great, want to experience this ...
I surf to wateenleven.be and click the "start de video" button, but I don't get access. Apparently I have to register before I can watch the clip. The only good news is that any fake address works fine. But still, why do I HAVE TO register to see a commercial for Clouseau's new single?
Then comes the interactive experience ... In fact it's nothing more then nine (six actually, the three attic "rooms" are just deco) separate low res movies glued together in barbie-house. Indeed you can click on each one of the scenes to zoom on one "room" and even click further to zoom deeper (once) which gives you a quality level that's worse then a YouTube clip. So in case you were expecting something special, don't bother.
And that's where the interaction stops. Basically it's six situations that normally feature in a video clip, shown in a grid rather then neatly edited together.

I gues "Artificial Industry" (the company who seems to power this clip) is all about artificially attracting traffic but missing the authenticity to actually deliver something compelling. Cool idea, terrible execution, missed chance.

Clouseaukes ... better stick to 't Sportpaleis, your interaction there is much more genuine.

Travelling the world by motorbike

2008-10-26T11:10:00.004+01:00

As some of you may know I'm quite a maps-freak. I can spend hours looking at maps, plotting out routes and exploring the world through Google Earth. Something that is greatly appreciated by friends who join met on a motorcycle trip.

A few months ago I discovered routeyou.be, a Belgian starterup that helps you find the nicest route to travel. Yesterday I saw them mentionned on TechCrunch and plunged back into the site to compose some routes for my motorcycle travel website: www.mototravel.be. It's all in Dutch but the routes and pictures have no language of course.

What especially interresting about routeyou.com is that they have a feature that gives you the nicest route between two points. I haven't figured out exactly how they do it, but it works fine. And by switching "automatic" and "manual" you can combine normal roads with paths less travelled. Perfect if you go mountain biking or off-road motorcycling. Here is an off road bike route I made that mixes off road and real road.

Jim Rogers confuses the CNBC peeps

2008-10-16T21:21:00.003+02:00

This is hilarious and shocking at the same time. The guy/lady interviewing Jim clearly do not get the answers they wanted to get.
What do I learn: If I had money, I'd put it in Swiss Franks and Gold too, or in something tangible (like a house or so). We're heading for an inflationary holocaust (quote from Jim) and the "solution" will be the installment of a new global currency (and a world bank managed by the same people that are causing this crisis) in the way we had "Operatie Gutt" in Belgium in 1944.

About authenticity & why people go to conferences

2008-10-16T07:38:00.005+02:00

At least the "Stichting Marketing" is honest and "authentic" about the fact that most marketeers visit the annual marketing conference mainly for the gift bag. So if you go there for the first time this year, and you wonder why the second day there's only 1/3 of the people left ... they are unpacking the giftbag they get on friday.

When we were sponsoring the conference last year there were clear instructions to concentrate all communication on the content and a bit on networking, which gave me hope for the future quality of the conference. But choosing authenticity as a theme apparently is driving the focus of the conference to the "authentic motivation" of many congres-visitors ... the gift bag.

Looks like there is an opportunity here for someone to organize a conference where learning from speakers and colleagues is the focus.

Reporting on Picnic08

2008-09-27T16:53:00.005+02:00

We came back from Picnic08 late last night and today has been a relaxing day. A bit of reading, some motorcycling, watching a fascinating documentary (see previous post) and time to look back at a hectic few weeks.

As my twitter-followers know we had a big announcement to make yesterday at Picnic. ONE Agency launched it's first office abroad in Amsterdam. We now also have "Hollandse Maatjes" (Dutch Friends but also typical Dutch Haring) as you can see in the little movie we made for the occasion.

Unfortunately I did not see all of Picnic but I did get a flavour of what was going on. Two topics struck me:

1. SOCIAL
Everything seems to go Social these days, in fact the word social fell so many times that we were completely over-social-ed by the end of the day. I gues social is now what 'rich internet' was a few years ago (and standard today). So expect social to be standard in a few years.
I did note an important cultural difference between what goes on in The Netherlands and Belgium. In Belgium protecting your turf is most web-entrepreneurs' main concern. That is why we have a lot of trouble selling 'OpenID' to our customers. It means they have to give up their fetish for customer data and e-mail adresses and be happy with getting traffic. And that is a no-go in Belgium.
Our biggest Dutch customer Achmea however said to me (sorry Dutch, difficult to translate): "Om te groeien moet je eerst kunnen delen, zoals celdeling." That to me is something to live by if you want to be successfull in the social space.
I mostly attended "Gaming go social" (as I was on a panel there) and rumours say this was the best part of Picnic08. Nothing to do with my performance but I must say the guys from Ex Machina did a great job in getting an interesting line-up of speakers there.

2. INTERNET OF THINGS
A bit further away from day-to-day reality is all that concerns the "Internet of Things". The geeky crowd seemed to love the RFID based projects presented there, not the least tikitag (our customer) who'll be the first on the market with this type of appplication (check out tikitag.com for more info).
During the launch drink of ONE Agency Nederland we tagged all the haring (well, the flags I mean) with tikitags and with the tag you could win or not win a crate of Gentsen Tripel. How's that for mixing cultures, Dutch fish with Belgian beer. There again we saw a lot of intrest from the people present. Looks like we've got another project on our hands that sell best if you can first experiënce it.

Take some time to watch this Italien documentary ...

2008-09-27T16:44:00.001+02:00

Really, take the time to watch all 10 pieces. It's worth while, no drama, no bullshit, just facts that'll make you think and who knows, wake you up.

In a panel at Picnic tomorrow

2008-09-25T19:23:00.003+02:00

Tomorrow I'm part of a panel in the "Games go Social" part of Picnic in Amsterdam. It's realy cool to be able to share ideas and thoughts with such an impressive panel:
Panel members: Shervin Pishevar (SGN), Maximilian Niederhofer (Atlas Venture), Kristian Segerstråle (Playfish) and myself of course.

Our moderator Yme Bosma has prepared the agenda, so if you have ideas don't hesitate to post them in the comments here.

Looking at my co-panel members' CV's I have a feeling we'll talk mostly about minigames played within social networks, however I think there are a lot of opportunities to gather casual gamers who play on consoles (e.g. Wii) on social networking platforms. Long time ago I made a proposal for that for Telenet but they stuck with hardcore gamers (and babe-lovers) with their 9Lives site.

Anyway, see you in Amsterdam ...

PS
Keep a lookout for ONE Agency news tomorrow. I'm not in Amsterdam for Picnic alone (check the agenda)

tikitag is so cool (got a fun idea to work out)

2008-09-18T14:09:00.002+02:00

tikitag from Bart De Neve on Vimeo

Apple doesn't like it's iPhone customers (tx to Mobistar)

2008-09-15T10:46:00.000+02:00

I'm not really the whining type of guy, but the hypocrit way in which Apple treats it's iPhone customers in Belgium totally pisses me off.

About TWO MONTHS ago I ordered an iPhone at my regular Apple dealer. You know, the guys where I've bought like 4 or 5 macs and loads of accessories with. Untill now I heard nothing from them.
On the other side, I could go into a Mobistar shop and order an iPhone. If I tell them I'll take a subscription with them, I can have the phone in ONE WEEK.

What do I learn:
1. Apple doesn't give a damn about it's customers.
2. Apple takes a piss at it's official dealers.
3. Mobistar must have a great negotiation skills training in the house ...
4. But all of this is generating a lot of negative energy towards Mobistar

Hey guys at Apple, there are limits to the amount of goodwill a great products creates. Give your customers a break and serve them on a fair first-come-first-serve basis.

Technorati Tags: iPhone, Mobistar, Apple

tikitag presented to the public for the first time

2008-09-09T11:53:00.003+02:00

tikitag, a venture by Alcatel-Lucent, presented for the first time to the public at DEMO FALL 08. ONE Agency is tikitag's agency, we've been their partner for the whole trajectory ranging from strategy over logo design to the website and the interactive communication. More about tikitag in the months to come.

Me happy biker

2008-06-30T10:34:00.003+02:00

Since last friday my brand-new bike has taken the 1000km hurdle and is now officially "gerodeerd". So I had lot's of fun in the Ardennen this weekend with the Sammy's Angels ((ex-)Samsonite employees riding a bike). Tx Wim for the picture.

BMW Gina: Context over Dogma

2008-06-12T09:47:00.002+02:00

Something to think through over a glass of single malt ... BMW thinks out of the 'carosserie':

Inspiration, anyone?

2008-06-09T18:39:00.002+02:00

New movie by the guys at Microsoft Advertising, great work. Although it misses the novelty that 'bring back the love' had. This one is more directed at 'traditional' agencies who still don't really get the interactive thing (like most). It's cool to make fun of these nitwits and I guess it conveys the message, but still ... I prefer bringing the real message directly rather then indirectly, like they did the first time.

Inspiration, anyone?
by geertdesager

ONE Agency makes 1000 Zonnen shine online

2008-06-08T01:21:00.005+02:00

Shared by Bert
Read the last paragraph!

Gent, 6 June 2008 – 30 May saw the launch of the VRT's '1000 Zonnen' website, designed and developed by ONE Agency in collaboration with the VRT.

At www.een.be/1000zonnen or www.radio2.be/1000zonnen, fans of '1000 Zonnen en Garnalen' can get interactive and contribute to this year's series, which goes by the trimmed-down name of '1000 Zonnen'. Users are invited to upload photos and videos onto the SunTube and are able to vote and comment on other users' contributions. Each day, Eén selects the video of the day, which is then aired on the following edition of the TV programme '1000 Zonnen'.

The interactive agenda allows surfers to both search for events and post information about summer happenings they recommend. With the online 'Reportages' gallery, '1000 Zonnen' followers can enjoy previous broadcasts of not only the '1000 Zonnen' TV programmes but also the Radio 2 '1000 Zonnen' reports.

ONE Agency was responsible for the design and development of the website, which bears all the hallmarks of a classic web 2.0 cross-media platform featuring rich-media applications and tools for interaction.

"This project is a perfect illustration of how ONE Agency is putting the various media (TV, Radio, Newspapers...) on the Social Media path. These media are in the ideal position to create a social dynamic with the user, thanks to the power of their offering" explains Jo Caudron. "In the same way as many other ONE Agency realisations (such as connectr.be , carchannel.be, gezelligstefamilie.be) this project demonstrates a foretaste of the platform currently being developed by ONE Agency, which is designed to get Social Network sites up and running quickly and efficiently."

Source: http://www.one-agency.be/news.php?vid=505

The clowd

2008-06-08T01:21:00.004+02:00

Shared by Bert
Looking for a great story to freak out your mom and dad ...? Read this. Privacy and attention metadata are will be so crucial in the near future, it's time I invest in a company that tries lever it (that is, if I had the money to do so).

So, very soon, you will own a cell phone that has a very good camera and knows where you are within ten or fifteen feet. And the web will know who you are and who your friends are.

What happens?

Well, when you take a photo, you can automatically send it to the clowd. The clowd can color correct and adjust the photo based on the million other photos it has seen just like this.

The clowd can figure out that this was the high school graduation (same time, same location), and realize that you were there with fifty of your closest friends, and automatically group the photos together... leaving out the people it's obvious you don't like.

The clowd can also find pictures taken of the same person, but by other people, and show them to you. Or cooler still, introduce you to those people. So, you take a picture of Keith Jarrett at Carnegie Hall and the clowd introduces you to other people who took his picture in ther places. (No, you shouldn't have to tell the clowd it's Keith, it should know. But yes, you will opt in to all of this... you ask before it takes these matchmaking liberties).

Wait. Alex suggests that this is the yearbook of the future. What an antiquity the yearbook we all own is. What happens when every student builds her own yearbook all year long? The clowd grabs your pictures, your friends' pictures, pictures that the group has admired. It grabs the teachers you've written about, but leaves out the ones you've never interacted with. And everyone gets a different yearbook, of course.

PS your privacy is fairly shot. See a dangerous driver? Send a video snippet to the clowd. The clowd collates that with a bunch of other shots of the same driver... busted.

And the clowd also knows where you are, camera or no camera. So it can tell you when your old friend is just two gates away from you, also wasting time at the airport waiting for her flight. Or it can do Zagats to the ten thousandth power by not only suggesting the best nearby restaurant (based on your food circle of friends) but can also integrate with Open Table and only recommend restaurants that actually have room for you. Or it can let restaurant owners do yield management and find you a table at a good enough restaurant at the best possible price...

This is going to happen. The only question is whether you are one of the people who will make it happen. I guess there's an even bigger question: will we do it right?

(Seth Godin)

The Big Bang Theory & Oudenaarde (Belgium)

2008-06-07T18:59:00.001+02:00

@Corneel hooked me up with the most hilarious show in years: "The Big Bang Theory". It's not on any Belgian (or European) channels but you can for sure find it online.

Recently I noted a picture on the wall in appartment (the kitchen more precisely) that is a vintage poster for a local beer in my hometown (Oudenaarde) in Belgium. Where the hell did they get the idea of putting up a poster for "Petre Devos", a beer that no longer exists. It's even got the ancient way of writing the name "Audenaarde" at the top. Nothing geeky about that. It really beats me.

Anybody got an idea where this comes from?

iPhone comes to Belgium on Mobistar, bye bye Proximus!

2008-05-16T15:35:00.000+02:00

iPhone comes to Belgium on Mobistar, bye bye Proximus!

Shared by Bert
Looks like I might be switching to Mobistar one of these days ...

I just read the press release from Orange, Mobistar, a subsidiary of Orange is going to carry the iPhone in Belgium. The actual press release still leaves in doubt if the agreement is an exclusive one. For some reason the newspaper The Standaard believes that the agreement is exclusive (http://www.standaard.be/Artikel/Detail.aspx?artikelId=DMF16052008_015&kanaalid=16). Interestingly there is a link to an interview with Frédéric Verbiest from Belgacom (http://www.standaard.be/Artikel/Detail.aspx?artikelId=DMF16052008_041&kanaalid=16) who states that Belgacom (parent company of Proximus) is not currently in talks with Apple. What is this? Belgacom arrogance? Belgacom stupidity? Vodahone, Belgacoms international partner is carrying the iPhone.

So, what am I going to do do in the next few months? Wait until the iPhone effectively appears with Mobistar, dump my Proximus contract and get a Mobistar contract. So Proximus is going to loose out on roughly 4000 EURO/year in mobile phone invoices I am paying. I don't think I will be the only one.

Are social networks dragging down CPMs?

2008-05-16T06:53:00.006+02:00

Are social networks dragging down CPMs?

Shared by Bert
Interesting view on the advertising power of social networks.

My pal Mark Dempster over at Sequoia sent me a study on CPM's dropping.

The key finding here, in my mind, is what I've said all along: social networks are great for traffic but horrible for advertising. Social networking sites are probably not going to figure out a way to insert advertising into people's conversations--just like message boards, chat rooms, and IM didn't.

Again, communication services are amazing for traffic, but they suck for advertising. High CPMs are going to be reserved for vertical content and search, where people are in the cognitive mindset to consume sponsor messages, which when correctly aligned are perceived as content.

"Among the verticals, Social Networking led the plunge with monetization dropping 47 percent, from 37 cents in March to 19 cents in April, below January lows of 22 cents. Entertainment monetization dropped 17 percent from 40 cents in March to 33 cents in April. Gaming and Sports were down marginally (4 percent and 5 percent, respectively). Technology remained relatively flat at 83 cents in April vs. 82 cents in March, but is still off January highs of 92 cents."

If I was running a social networking site like MySpace and Facebook I would REMOVE ADVERTISING and drive all the traffic I could from the social network to niche content sites and search where it monetizes really well. This way folks feel like there is no advertising on Facebook/MySpace and they spend more time there.*
JasonNation: What do you think social networking sites should do to monetize their traffic?

* No, I'm not asking to get bought by Facebook or MySpace... I'm just pointing out what I think the right strategy is for social networking sites: build traffic and dump it to places that make money.

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Nostalgic iDial

2008-05-16T06:53:00.004+02:00

Another useless but very funny iPhone app ...

Nostalgic iDial

iPhone skins.

How to Twitter Conferences Like A Rock Star

2008-05-16T06:53:00.003+02:00

I have some experience in Twittering conferences, and David Armano perfectly summarizes what I experienced too:

How to Twitter Conferences Like A Rock Star

I'm fast approaching having 3000 followers on Twitter. Though my followers on Twitter don't match the readership of this blog, it's a fairly substantial audience and I've found Twitter to be incredibly useful in a number of ways which I've spoken about at length several times. One of these ways is to "live-broadcast" from conferences. Each time I do it, most of the people on Twitter who receive my stream seem to really like it. Those who don't either deal with, it or can temporarily un-follow me until I'm finished. I was recently asked by a Twitter user if I ever put my conference tweet "methods" into a blog post. I had not. Until now. Here's how you can Twitter conferences like a rock star. :-)

1. Filter The Signal From Noise
There's a lot of noise at conferences. People are there to promote both their organizations, their books and their personal brands. There's also an incredible amount of insights and thought nuggets that manifest at conferences and events. Train yourself to look for these choice bits. Listen with all of your senses. Trust your intuition and filter out the things that offer insights vs. that which doesn't.

2. Color Your Commentary
Unless you are a professional journalist, you have no reason to be objective. Do your best to capture quotes accurately but also don't forget that people are reading your thoughts because they want to know what YOU think. Don't be afraid to agree or disagree with a speaker. Throw out your POV for what it's worth. Spice up things by adding additional thoughts to what you just heard. Add your voice to the conversation. For lessons on how to do this, think of the great sportscasters. After all, you're covering a live event as it happens.

3. Talk To Your Audience
As you are busy capturing ideas and quotes, it becomes increasingly difficult to do anything else. But, you've made a choice to be an active participant as opposed to a passive member of the audience. Acknowledge followers on Twitter as much as possible. If someone has a really smart question for a panelist, try to ask that question on their behalf. Remember that the people who are choosing to follow your stream in real time are taking time out of their day to do so. Try to provide as much value as possible.

4. Paint The Scene
Twitter users who enjoy following conferences coverage through someone on Twitter will often times express how they "felt like they were there". Do what you can to reference the sights, sounds, and even smells of what you are experiencing. Talk about what people are wearing. Write about some of the details that might get overlooked in a wrap up of the conference. Paint a mental picture for your audience so that they can actually envision themselves there. It's cheaper for them and a more rewarding digital experience.

5. Do it For Yourself
Don't lose sight of the fact that unless you are being paid, you are ultimately choosing to tether yourself to a device during a conference because YOU are getting something out of it. If it's not fun for you, don't do it and don't be afraid to give yourself breaks for speakers who's messages you really want to absorb. Think of Twitter as a substitute for a notebook. Write down the things YOU find interesting. Add your personal thoughts. Be yourself. Don't be afraid to forget that you actually have an audience every once in a while and practice "responsible candor". This means saying what comes to mind as long as you don't jeopardize your professionalism. Be who you are—authenticity is the name of the game in this medium.

So those are my tips. Next week I will be live tweeting from IIT's Strategy conference. If you want to tune in, sign up to Twitter and follow me here. Special thanks to hdavis for inspiring this write-up.

Mashing a blog together

2008-05-15T21:45:00.002+02:00

I think I found a solution to boost my blogging frequency. In order to easily share my thoughts with you on stuff I found online, I've set up a procedure that will automatically post anything I share in Google Reader. This is how it works (at least, I hope it works), it's very simple:

1. I activated "post via email" on my blog account, that gives you a special posting e-mail address.
2. Get the RSS feed of my shared items in Google Reader
3. Have Sendmerss.com send all my new shared items to the e-mail in step 1

Sendmerss checks the feed every 1 to 2 hours, so you should see new posts appearing here in the coming hour or so.

When your COO wear's a T-shirt that says ... "Why Work" ...

2008-05-13T20:53:00.001+02:00

This is what happens ...

Disclaimer: Henri is a colleague of mine :)

Sydes and Arkafund acquire participation in ONE Agency

2008-04-29T12:32:00.004+02:00

Jippie!

Here's an extract/re-edit of the press release:

ONE Agency announces today that Sydes and Arkafund will contribute to the further expansion of the young Ghent-based company. A total of € 1 million is being invested in the further expansion and internationalization of ONE Agency. Management and existing shareholders have also made additional investments in contributing to this development.

ONE Agency, a young challenger
The company is headed by Jo Caudron, Bert Van Wassenhove (that's me)and Henri Cnops. ONE Agency’s rapid growth and strong reference list is the result, among others, of the years of interactive experience of its founders and management coupled with the team’s enthusiasm for the internet as a medium for open communication.

ONE Agency has succeeded in acquiring a unique position in record speed as a “new style” interaction bureau. The emphasis here lies in the use of the latest developments in the domain of rich media and social network applications for the world of marketing and communication.
The increasing role of the user in the explosive growth of rich media (web video, internet radio, etc.) has resulted in a number of new challenges for the market. ONE Agency’s goal is to respond to the many needs of its customers with regard to new forms of media, marketing and interaction.

ONE Agency works for large Belgian and international clients such as Connections, KBC, MTV Networks, Neckermann.com, RTBF, Sanoma Magazines, Truvo, Vedior and VRT. In addition, ONE Agency is also a strategic partner of a number of young companies with a strong online focus such as Billy (Blue Ocean), Tikitag (Alcatel Lucent), CarChannel (Rossel Group) and Aristo Music.

ONE Agency, a company with ambitions
Sydes’ and Arkafund’s investment will enable the company to further solidify its position and initiate further growth in Belgium and beyond. Alongside a reinforcement of the existing team, the company’s rich media and social network platform, currently used by a number of clients, will also be further developed. This will enable the quick and efficient integration of rich media and social services within the strategies of the company’s clients.

Arkafund and Sydes take on their share
Sydes is the investment company of Corelio, publishers of, among others, De Standaard and Het Nieuwsblad. The group also has important shareholdings in the broad media world including, among others, Woestijnvis, Caviar and Passe-Partout.
Arkafund was created as a venture capital fund by Dexia and Corelio. By making recourse to the ARKimedes Foundation, the fund amount was effectively doubled. With its participative share in ONE Agency, Arkafund has confirmed its role as an incubator of new media. Arkafund and Sydes were impressed by the rapid breakthrough of ONE Agency and were above all charmed by the unique combination of a creative and driven management and the disciplined follow up by the Board of Directors. For Arkafund, these are solid guarantees for realizing ONE Agency’s ambitious plan for the future.

Macbook + iPhone + Steve Ballmer + Flickr = FUN

2008-04-29T07:53:00.003+02:00

Last week Jo Caudron presented at a Microsoft seminar, and his Macbook remained on stage when Steve Ballmer made his presentation. Frederik Temmermans made picture with his iPhone and put it up on Flickr ... Viewed 216,970 times and counting :)

Check out the comments on Flickr ...

By the way, I saw Steve Ballmer too in Louvain La Neuve (the afternoon session), and I really like the guy. A big gorilla yes, but with loads of drive and a passionate speaker. I never got to asking my question but I do wonder whether Microsoft will manage to be successful in the advertising world (which is one of the three pillars of their strategy). After all they are a software company in the first place (quote from Steve Ballmer), and advertising is all about people.

Ogilvy against ONE Agency ... justice prevails

2008-04-23T06:39:00.003+02:00

Just a few months after ONE Agency launched in October 2006, advertising mogul Ogilvy sued ONE Agency for using the name "ONE". They even claimed a compensation of € 25.000 per day that ONE Agency used ONE as their name.

Now, after the trial on February 14th 2008, the judge has totally rejected Ogilvy's claim. Looks like there is justice in this world after all.

I'd like to thank all the people who supported ONE Agency along this battle, especially those competitors ours who were prepared to back up our arguments. It's good to see that most agencies prefer to win clients by doing excellent work rather then trying to weaken competitors through legal claims.

Tip for Ogilvy's legal department: there's still "ONE Cleaning" to go after, they have an office right next to our's in Ghent.

For your info: I work for ONE Agency, which makes this even better news :)

Google docs offline - ready to move 100% in the cloud

2008-04-20T08:37:00.003+02:00

The off line feature of my Google Docs account just got activated. This means that I can now produce and edit texts, spreadsheets and simple presentations on Google Docs without being connected to the internet.

Since this feature was announced I have using Google Docs more and more and for 80% of my activities this suite is perfect. Almost exactly a year ago I posted a review of a number of office solutions, here's a short update:

Mail:
I'm all over Gmail, it works perfect to me. If the for Firefox would work all the time, it would even be better. In order to be able to work off line or with low bandwidth I've got IMAP enabled so I can use Gmail on my iPhone and on my MacBook. In "Mail" on the MacBook I have a full copy of all my mail (also through IMAP) ... just in case.

Spreadsheets:
Anything that involves huge lists or pivot tables requires Excel, but for your budget, forecast or any other sophisticated sheet Google spreadsheet does just fine.

Word processsing:
For now I'm only using Google Docs for writing, editing and sharing texts as such. I still need to figure out how we can get good-looking templates in there for official documents we send to clients.

Presentations:
Google presentation is very basic, so only fit for occasional simple stuff. Keynote on the Mac is still my N°1 presentation making tool. Although the new Powerpoint for Mac is said to be good too. Need to check that out some day soon.

Blogging:
The Blogger editor is still crap. I use ecto from time to time but inserting pictures doesn't work there and the tags are not linked with the Google tags. An alternative is using Google Docs and then publishing to Blogger, but that doesn't work flawlessly all the time either. Any suggestions there are welcome.

Just for fun

2008-04-11T11:30:00.001+02:00

MIPTV Cannes: Panel: What's the future of social networks? Will social advertising really work

2008-04-10T12:19:00.005+02:00

The panel kicked of with a short , very elegantly done by Loi Le Meur. Next up was Wandrille Pruvot showing some slide about mobile http://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gifsocial networks. But too damn fast to write something about it. Currently Pascal Thomas from Orange explains how they are integrating community in marketing.

Loic hacking Sarah's panel, referring to the South by Southwest debacle. About 10 people in the room seem to be on Twitter, not enough to really get something going here though.

switced to live streamig

MIPTV Cannes: Internet TV Keynote - Joi Ito: Share, Remix, Reuse - Legally Creative Commons and the sharing economy

2008-04-10T11:24:00.006+02:00

Joi Ito on stage, starts of good. Passionate speaker.

"Traffic is the currency of the internet."

On artists:
Before, you had to interact with your fanbase through a small box inbetween thousands of others. Now you can do much more, get in real contact with fans who will pay for this. So give away the music to the masses as a form of publicity, and charge more to those people prepared to pay for it (e.g. sell them a signed DVD box like Nine Inch Nails did).

How to make sharing profitable:
Sharing is something young people want to do, they are the fans stupid! Don't sue them, help them to share, provide them with tools to share.

Sharing is not people stealing your content, it's people marketing your content.

By locking up content, you will lose young people's attention to e.g. video games.

MIPTV Cannes: Social Networking Keynote - Joanna Shields: A new vision of the social web, combining community, self expressino and entertainment

2008-04-10T10:49:00.006+02:00

Joanna Shields is President of Bebo, with an impressive CV. However not really a gifted speaker I'm afraid.

Most interesting learning: Content and Social Interaction are coming together. Bebo (and also MySpace) really see these two worlds come together online.

I totally follow this:
In social media advertisers have to think conversation. It's not about jumping in for a few weeks and then jumping out again.

Joanna is more interesting in an interview then in a speech:"social network innovation is not decided at Microsoft or Google, but at content companies"

MIPTV Cannes: BBC iPlayer on Nintendo Wii

2008-04-10T10:33:00.004+02:00

Small message in-between.

Yesterday Erik Huggers of the BBC announced that the BBC iPlayer will soon be available on TV "where it belongs" through the Nintendo Wii. Good move, the BBC clearly has understood that it's all about getting your content on as much screens as possible. And not be locked into crappy digiboxes of all sorts.

MIPTV Cannes: Social Networking Keynote - Travis Katz: Digital

2008-04-10T10:24:00.002+02:00

Travis Katz is the General Manager for the international operations of MySpace.com and Fox Interactive Media. He's being interviewed by Stephen Armstrong, a UK journalist.

Travis mainly talks about all types of TY style content that is being distributed through MySpace. A 'special announcement' is that they signed a deal with some big production company to distribute content worldwide through MySpace TV.

How about 'fictional' characters that promote their own content. Travis thinks this is key to the success of MySpace and the media they distribute. People want to interact with both the real and fictional characters they admire. In case of music that's mostly real people, in TV shows the characters are fictional but people don't seem to mind.

Learnings for TV people: The new generation has been brought up with unlimited choice and control. They will still be compelled by content, but they will interact with it in a totally different way.

Adobe Media Player, Hulu, IPTV is here to stay

2008-04-09T10:25:00.001+02:00

I had given up on Joost because of lack of good content, and because the player doesn't work on my Mac anymore. I'm currently testing Adobe Media Player (watching CSI NY as I write) and yesterday I fooled around with Hulu. Oh and I also had a look at tv.adobe.com which interestingly has a homepage layout that is identical to Hulu.com ... some connection there?

Both hulu.com and Adobe Media Player have great interfaces, based on standard technology (Flash/Flex & Air) which works perfectly on many platforms. OK, Joost may be a bit more creative, but Hulu and the Adobe Media Player simply do the job. Streaming (even full screen) delivers a great experience, I can't wait to attach my Mac to the big screen at home. I suspect the quality will be as good as standard digital TV.

Even more important is the content. Hulu (if you can get past the IP-blocking for non-US viewers) offers a huge database of movies and TV shows I really want to see, and the latest episode of CSI N.Y. is rolling in swiftly on the Adobe platform.

I just found a lot of reasons to throw out the iDTV box and put a Mac Mini in place. No Apple TV though, because I want to get content from more then just iTunes. TV is really in for some big changes over the coming years, that much is clear.

MIPTV Cannes: Conversational Marketing: The Power Of Online Social Networks and 360 Campaigns

2008-04-08T15:33:00.007+02:00

OK, gearing up for the next presentation but juice is running out. So I may have to stop blogging halfway this presentation.

We start with Caroline Slootweg, Director, Digital Marketing and New Media, Unilever. Looks like Unilever does get the idea of the social web, the internet as a communication channel. I also agree that some things never change, but I don't agree it's only about good products and good marketing. What doesn't change are the people themselves, and their hunger for social interaction.
So, adding a 'topic of discussion' to each campaign is not enough if you ask me. The way people communicate, the intensity, etc. changes fundamentally. And we have to learn to work with that.
Here comes the "campaign for real beauty". Great campaign, but why does Caroline have to over-do it? The video was not launched on YouTube, it was on a traditional microsite and damn difficult to share with friends. No embed codes, no direct links. It's a great campaign Caroline, but admit you learned a lot as you went, don't pretend you knew al about social media before you started the campaign.

Next up is Michael Tchao, General Manager, Techlab, Nike. He's the man behind Nike+.

Nice thought: "How can we turn information into inspiration?"

OK Michael, nicely prepared speech, but we know what Nike+ is ... The advertising campaign is nicely done, lot's of creative brand activation, cool ...

MIPTV Cannes: The New Rules of Engagement for the Digital Consumer

2008-04-08T15:03:00.003+02:00

Panel discussion with an spicy discussion going back and forth between panel members. Some old-fashioned TV is better, no internet is better discussions going on there. One thing NOBODY talks about is iDTV, as @jcaudron quoted on Twitter: "the red button is dead. Create emotion and traction on TV, divert them to the web to get them engaged"

What keeps on coming back in this conference is the mind-shift for video producers of all kind (TV stations, producers, etc.) to let go their content and even promote it on all kinds of platforms. So don't restrict content to your own little site, show it everywhere. Capture attention where it is.

The word "ecosystem" has fallen ... about time too.

"YouTube is the largest focus group in the world."

Cool campaign against drugs, make sure to check out the video's:
http://www.talktofrank.com

MIPTV Cannes: Jeremy Allaire: "Beyond Aggregation: Unlocking the Value

2008-04-08T10:22:00.005+02:00

Racing to keep up with presentations, Jeremy Allaire is CEO of Brightcove.

The fundamentals of a website have changed, it's no longer content only ...

Some stats showing that online content consumption is totally different then how people consume TV (surprise ...)

Things to remember with regard to business models:
- Capitalize on your community, not only on video.
- Capitalize on deep engagement between with your audience

MIPTV Cannes: Internet TV Keynote - Sex, Lies and Online TV

2008-04-08T10:06:00.002+02:00

Goodmorning Cannes, back in the Esterel room for the Internet TV Keynote by Hulu CEO Jason Kilar. Christel De Maeyer from Plugmedia sits next to me, we're in good company.

- cool little quote to set the scene -
Google paid more for DoubleClick then the Indian group Tata paid for Jaguar and Land Rover.

1. Strong trend
All indicators concerning online video have tripled over the last 24 months.

2. Atypical user experience

Three design principles:
- Not overloaded (should not look like Tokyo at night)
- My mother should be able to use it in 15 seconds without help
- Light & stylish

"There will always be more people on the internet who are not on Hulu.com, that is why we want to take this experience to as much as possible other sites." This is something we've been talking about a lot lately. Next to your own site, you have to build an ecosystem of sites around you where people can consume your content.
And Hulu.com also turns it around. If e.g. "Lost" is not available on Hulu.com, but it is available legally somewhere else on the web, Hulu.com offers this content too (links to those sites). So they actually 'promote' competitor's content for the sake of consumer comfort. That alone may just be enough to make Hulu a success.

3. What about content owners
A big plea for online TV as a form of 'sampling'. "We are in an impulse business". Give your content away online (with some advertising to pay for part of it) and when people like it, people will go buy your content to be consumed in other occasions (DVD, TV, etc.).

MIPTV Cannes: TV Keynote - Elisabeth Murdoch: Creativity without borders

2008-04-07T18:08:00.002+02:00

... not the most creative title to start with ...

Introduction about Elisabeth's history in Cannes ... yawn ...

OK, so this is officially the most uninspired, uncreative speech of the day. Elisabeth is actually reading her speech from a nifty system, a kind of auto-cue projected on two small pieces of glass that stand about a meter away from her. It looks as if she looks in the room, but in fact she's not. Old-skool TV habits I guess ...

Some quotes, for what it's worth:
- Creativity is not hierarchical
- Creativity is not linear

That was it, I leave you with a picture from the presentation so you have at least something interesting to close the day:

Update:
Apparently more people were live blogging, or not? This was up before the speech began ...
http://www.c21media.net/news/detail.asp?area=1&article=40995

MIPTV Cannes: Green Day - Keven Wall: Live Earth employs 360 content

2008-04-07T17:15:00.002+02:00

While TV execs swarm around David De Rothschild (no joking, at least 30 fighting to exchange business cards) Kevin Wall gets on stage. I not a big promotor of the 360 thinking (I think one should use the media best fit to reach a goal). However, "Live Earth" is BIG and and it does a great job in generating awareness for environmental issues. Well does it really? Or is it just a cool event with popular music?
Kevin Wall is Chairman & CEO of Control Room and Founder & CEO of Live Earth
Let's hear it ...

Mark Halper (Journalist) is chit-chatting with Kevin Wall ... nothing really interesting yet ...

To what extent is Live Earth eco-friendly?
Rock concerts are not eco friendly by nature. Live Earth trained the organizations extensively to be as eco-friendly as possible and as result they were 1/3 more eco-friendly then the best example until now. As audited by PWC ... which does not really convince me I must say.

Cool quote, while praising MSN for giving them a HUGE audience, and the possibility to connect back with this audience afterwards:
"Wake up to the real world: People are not watching TV"

About bandwith and servers ... as expected they did not have too much trouble (thanks to Akamai), another quote:
"The internet is ready for large scale broadcasting".
No surprise for me there, but unfortunately for Mr. Wall broadcasting is not what makes the Internet so powerful.

Looks like Kevin Wall looks a the internet as some kind of interactive TV, not so much as a communication platform. There is a point of course in the 'on-demand' feature, the global reach and the lean forward aspect of being a bit interactive.

MIPTV Cannes: Green Day - David De Rothschild: TV's big green

2008-04-07T16:45:00.002+02:00

In the "Esterel" room at Cannes but not live blogging. I took a WiFi subscription at the hotel so will upload this later tonight. I don't have the illusion anyone is so interested in this they want to read it live. Moreover, if you read this through an RSS reader (like most), there's a big chance you will read this with some delay anyhow.

- update - just got a WiFi connection, so uploading near live now -

I don't know Mr. De Rothschild, but judging from his name I guess he's some rich guy with nothing on his hands except for a lot of money, trying to give sense to his life by giving an environmental twist to his adventures. But then again, this was somehow what I thought of Dixie Dansercourt (did I spell that right) before I actually met the guy. So, let's give David the benefit of the doubt ...

"Technically we are all adventurers, we create stories ..."

The world is in the 'dispair' phase of the Kübler-Ross model (the stages of grief) when it comes the ecological future of our globe. So how do we get away from the negative to the positive. The next step is 'acceptance'. The answer: KIDS. Kids are the future, so "Adventure Ecology" (David's company) put's kids in control of environmental things. Help them realize small things so they can discover there is a future and they can do something about it.

Nick's Big GREEN Thing, is a program David makes with/for Nicolodium where kids are challenged to take small steps towards a better world. It's done in a very interactive way, next to a really entertaining piece of TV there's all kinds of interactive features such as blogs for the kid and all kinds of other feedback mechanisms.

Great message if you ask me. I'm bringing up an 11 year-old and I want her to have a bright future, but she must learn that SHE is one of the people who will have to build her own future. In fact, this goes for all of us.

"The only thing an adventure ecologist needs is - passion!"

Keep an eye on the launch of the PlasTiki, a boat entirely build of used pet-bottles. It sets sail in december 2008.

Can LinkedIn serve as 'proof' towards the police?

2008-04-05T14:34:00.000+02:00

I'm doing an interesting little experiment for the moment. Some time ago I received a fine from the "Mechelse Politie". Somewhat surprised (haven't been in Mechelen for quite some time) I took a closer look and saw the car they mention is the one I had at my previous employer. Apparently the leasing company doesn't know that car is now used by somebody else (Gunther, put on your belt next time you go to Telenet).

I called the police and they told me I have to respond on paper and explain the point, and also prove I no long work for this company. As I'm not inclined to send them things like e.g. my contract with my new employer, I'm sending the police a print of my LinkedIn profile. That clearly states that I've changed jobs more then a year ago.

Now let's wait and see what happens ...

By the way, West Lease NV in Kuurne is not exactly a great example of a customer friendly company. I had lengthy discussions with them about the possibility of taking that car with me to my new employer, but that did not work out in the end. So they should know I'm not driving that car anymore. And they claim to be "very professional" and deliver a "personalised service" ... it would be a good start if they would know the name of their customers.

Going to MIPTV next week

2008-04-01T07:36:00.000+02:00

I'll be attending MIPTV in Cannes next week, together with Jo & Henri. I guess the brilliant ONE Agency team will have to survive without their inspirational leaders (don't foresee much of a problem there). The idea is to get inspired, learn and of course do some networking, but not in the traditional advertising or webosphere where most presentation actually repeat what a interactive marketing professional should know anyway. Nope, we're diving into "het hol van de leeuw" being the annual TV-mogul fest in Cannes.

The good thing about this show is that they have so much money (for the time being), that they are able to attract good speakers. Not so much all the CEO's of big TV or Telco companies, but innovators and challengers of all sorts. I'm looking forward to see the following:
> Jeremy Allaire, Chairman & CEO, Brightcove (USA) "Beyond Aggregation: Unlocking the Value of Online Video"Jason Kilar, CEO, Hulu (USA) "Sex, Lies and Online TV"
> Conversational Marketing: The Power Of Online Social Networks and 360 Campaigns
> Richard Dickson, Senior Vice President Worldwide Marketing, Media & Entertainment, Mattel Brands (USA) "The Evolution of a Living Brand"

And maybe most of all:
> Joi Ito, Chairman, Creative Commons "Share, Remix, Reuse-Legally. Creative Commons and the New Sharing Economy"
I mean, this guy is going to talk about all of this in front of an audience of people who'd kill their mother over the copyrights on their shows ... cool!

Check out the three main themes of the conference:
Green TV, Mobile Media and Social Media

Keep an eye on this blog and my tweets (www.twitter.com/ibert)!

Virgin Megastore in the freeconomy: the Virgin Metastore

2008-03-24T10:19:00.000+01:00

It's not easy to run a retail operation in times where online stores compete with physical outlets, where logistics shifts from trucks to bandwidth and where free distribution of goods seems to become the rule for anything digital. How can a retailer still make money?

Successful traditional retailers (both on- and offline) are usually strong in logistics. It's not so much marketing strategy, positioning or communication tactics that makes them thrive. Moving boxes in the most efficient way is what makes retail work. Even the iTunes store is about getting moving files from one place to another as frictionless as possible. It's money that matters. But what happens to retail if the main economic drive (money) is completed with two new drivers: time (attention) and reputation? Worse even, what happens if music is distributed for free, so the traditional economic driver simply disappears, if music definitely enters the freeconomy. How do you run a Virgin Megastore if Radiohead gives their music for free and everybody listens to internet radio (e.g. TMF Radio)? Moving to an online store concept such as iTunes is not the answer.

Retailers need to make a shift from logistics thinking to experience thinking. Take the example of the Virgin Megastore. Why pay for expensive high street locations to store thousands of plastic boxes that everybody can easily download? My recommendation would be to drastically shift from a Virgin Megastore to: "the VIRGIN METASTORE".

The mission of the store would be: "To be the market leader in share of attention when it comes to entertainment (music, video, games)."

The business model goes in different directions:

"Acquire attention from the customer, sell it to the music publishers and artists."
"Buy (or produce) physical stuff from artists (that includes their time) and sell it to the customers."

In fact, the business model will not be a traditional one-way exercise (buy > sell) but a balancing exercise with multiple parties where the sum of all the transactions in the store's ecosystem gives a positive ROI. I guess the finance department is up for a challenge there.
What does this mean for the Virgin Metastores:

Throw out all standard the CD's, put them in the attic or the cellar and people can order them at the counter, at in-store kiosks or online.
Customers can also choose to download the songs to their MP3 player in the store or online, some will be for free (could be back catalog, extra remixes, ...).
Use the free space to create experience corners where customers can enjoy different atmospheres. These could be linked with music genres (e.g. R&B, Classical music, Party, Alternative, etc.), popular artists (whoever happens to be in town that month) or particular themes (e.g. Christmas).
Sell all popular devices to enjoy music, video and/or games.
Organize workshops (like in Apple stores) to make your own music and video, learn how to convert your old vinyl LP's to MP3 or have a musicologist analyze the work of a specific artist.
Sell concert tickets. Sell complete travel arrangements to go see an artist in another country (including flight, hotel, meet & greet, etc.)
Organize mini concerts with for up and coming talent.
Have major artists over for in-house concerts and meet & greets with fans
Sell everything that goes beyond a standard CD: Gift boxes, full repertoire sets, CD + book, fashion, posters, gadgets, memorabilia, etc.
Obviously there will be a Starbucks (or similar) in the shops, a healthy snack corner and some free water fountains.
Sell music instruments
Match up people who want to start a band, shoot a movie or go to concerts
... put 5 creative people in a room and 50 more ideas will spring up ...

Anyway, if anyone has Richard Branson's e-mail address, feel free to send him a link to this post :)

Technorati Tags: iTunes, Music, Retail, Virgin Megastore

Why does WiFi have to be so complicated?

2008-03-19T17:56:00.000+01:00

I'm currently traveling between Antwerp and Amsterdam by train. I don't have a mobile internet connection yet, but luckily every station in The Netherlands seems to have KPN Hotspot. As even trains seem to suffer from traffic jams in Holland, I try to catch one of those hotspots:

1. By SMS: Doesn't work with a foreign mobile number (I'm sitting on the international train from Paris to Amsterdam, remember)
2. Microsoft offers me 15 minutes free Wifi if I watch a 2 minute demo of their products. I let the demo run but don't watch it, and then I get a page that will give me free access ... just need to enter my Dutch mobile number. Right ...
3. Credit Card: How expensive can it be I think, so I click on the credit card option. Please make yourself an account ... ok ... just when I start figuring out how to fill in this form the train starts moving again. Too late.

Thank god for the "PC Club Hofstad" in the next station that has an open Wifi network. It wasn't blazing fast but at least I could send some important mails out.

I have a similar experience with the Proximus hotspots, where it takes a technical analyst to figure out how to use the "free credit" I have as an ADSL customer to then discover the network is too slow to even fill in the necessary forms to get access. Oh and the sites don't really work on an iPhone.

Dear Telco's, get you act together please.

Technorati Tags: KPN, Proximus, WiFi

Social Spamworking ... the solution!

2008-02-27T08:03:00.001+01:00

Just when I thought my Gmail was filtering out most of the spam from my inbox, just at that moment got snowed in with Facebook-Myspace-LinkedIn-Plaxo-Spock mails. And what is worse, none of it is spam according to traditional definitions. All those mails were initiated by people I more or less know. When digging a bit deeper into all those mail I found that at the start of each wave there's a relatively small group of geeks who want to link with me on this new platform. And I play that game willingly, because I too want to see what is being done with another load of venture capital.

But what about the average user, the 'real' user? How can they find out whether it's worth the effort of once again entering their personal data in what's supposed to be a secure database. I think I just may have found the key.

If we go back to the basic reason for existence of social networks (be it online of offline) we always find a common field of interest. Something people like to talk about, brag or exchange ideas. En enjoyable night out happens when you meet someone you connect with, someone who has similar interests. And in social networks this is not different. Hugh MacLeod calls these subjects of conversation "Social Objects", and claims social networks start from social objects and not the other way around. In essence he has a point, but like always reality is more complex.

Social networks are still in an early development stage. Everybody is busy exploring the boundaries of privacy rules, testing which features work and which don't and how to monetize these networks. The platforms that offer the most optimal mix of the above manage to gather enough critical mass to survive longer then a few months. So we're up against a few more years of platforms that grow based on their novelty, coolness and a big marketing budget. Once enough members join, the conversation starts automatically and real social network are born.

Knowing this, it's relatively simple to find an indicator when platforms transform into real social networks. The tipping point can be identified through the subjects of discussion. At the start the thing most talked about (the social object) is the platform itself. This is mainly because it's members are early adopters and geeks who kick on novelties. When conversations turn towards other subjects, that is the point where platforms step into a new phase and can start building a future.

Take a look at Facebook. It started of as the electronic version of an existing social network for students and was very successful. Today Facebook is op to the public and needs to put a lot more effort in features to keep the engine running. The biggest subject of conversation in tFacebook in Europe (where there is no student-base) is ... Facebook. MySpace on the other hand was first launched as a platform and the tipping point came when it was recognized as a way for fans to network around their favorite artist.

So when in doubt whether or not to join another social network, check the conversations. If you find something that interests you, you may have found a cool place to meet friends.

Technorati Tags: Social Networks, Social Objects

Taking liberties

2008-02-23T09:58:00.000+01:00

Makes my blood boil ...

The Tipping Point versus The Long Tail

2008-01-28T21:06:00.000+01:00

Clive Thompson at Fast Company reports on a study by Duncan Watts that concludes the following:
"If society is ready to embrace a trend, almost anyone can start one--and if it isn't, then almost no one can," Watts concludes. To succeed with a new product, it's less a matter of finding the perfect hipster to infect and more a matter of gauging the public's mood. Sure, there'll always be a first mover in a trend. But since she generally stumbles into that role by chance, she is, in Watts's terminology, an "accidental Influential."

So the way trends spread is also subject to a "Long Tail" effect.

While reading the article I realized two things.

First I have a feeling this is a very valid theory. Although I think "The Tipping Point" is a very insightful book, I never really saw real-life proof of in applied in marketing campaigns. Sure, working with influentials has generated buzz, but not enough to convince me. The success is nog guaranteed, it's not consistent. I struggled with this idea for a long time, I though I just didn't understand the mechanics. Now I know there may not be any real mechanics to understand.

Secondly, the theory should be comforting to traditional marketeers. How can you give a new trend the best chances of making it into the market? By preparing the grounds, by getting consumers in the correct mindset. And a great way to do that is traditional advertising, provided it is done correctly. Thompson also writes this a the end of the article. Thinking about this a bit further there are probably a number of new marketing techniques that are even better at shifting mindsets. New marketing techniques (branded entertainment, gamevertising, using social media, experience marketing, etc.) are much less intrusive so they gently massage the brain and prepare it for the next big thing.

In summary: great insight!

Apple just killed blu-ray and hd-dvd

2008-01-18T08:24:00.000+01:00

In the traditional post-Jobs-Keynote buzz I read nothing about the third and probably final (in a way) standard in media storage: memory. While the consumer electronics moguls are fighting a war over which will be the next standard after the DVD, a war without signs of a winner yet, Apple announced a series of products that make it easy and affordable to simply store your movies on hard discs (or flash memory).

Just look a the line-up:

- Macbook Air: Has no DVD station build in. Your data is somewhere on the network (on a hard/flash drive).

- Apple TV: In a new version, has a considerable hard disc and can download movies through iTunes (HD). No DVD.

- Time capsule: A big hard drive with seamless high-speed connection to all other Apple devices in the house. Perfect to backup all you data (including movies) but also to simply store movies.

- iPod touch/iPhone: Plenty of storage capacity, wirelessly connected to your other drives. Works a screen to see movies on your network.

And it's not Apple alone who are switching to this 'new' standard, Lacie for one is also launching this kind of media products.

So throw out the DVD player and store the discs with your LP's in the Attic for your grandchildren (or sell them on eBay now) and invest in more storage capacity. My order for a 1 terra time capsule is in.

If you happen to be in Denver ...

2008-01-15T22:13:00.000+01:00

... make sure to drop by the new building of the MCA Denver. It's the perfect museum to me. Great architecture, interesting art, just large enough to spend an hour or two and then grab a bite in the lower downtown area. When we were there last week we enjoyed this installation by Candice Breitz called Legend. A kind of tribute to Bob Marley ... it really grabs you. Take your time to study all the faces, styles, expressions ... Most of the people in there have dark skin but they're all totally different. Fascinating really. And if the quality of this YouTube video is not good enough give me a yell, I have an HD version :). But better still, go see and experience if yourself.

And for the geeks ... movie shot with my brand new Sony HDR-CX6 HD video camera (which can not be found on the Sony website - duh!)and edited (just a bit) with iMovie. Editing HD movies however means LOADS of disk space, fortunately Steve comes to the rescue with the Time Capsule. Just what I was looking for to backup the 3 macs at home.

The economic story of stuff and how perceived obsolescence tricks us

2008-01-05T16:59:00.000+01:00

While I was re-installing my office after the redecoration we did over the holidays I bumped into so much stuff I'm not using anymore ... it's really incredible. Good thing I use almost no paper, but the rarely-used cables and old machinery fills up two boxes (see pic). And this is only what I managed to save from my dear wife's cleaning frenzy. So another good intention for the year is to consume less.

But how do you convince a more or less rational guy like me to start consuming less. Well, the little video at the bottom of this post gave me some good arguments. I had seen it before but Corneel turned me onto the full story again by pointing out this blogpost by Swissmiss. It's worth watching but what I remember from the consumption part is:

1. We are being tricked into consuming by selling us stuff that breaks faster then it should (Planned obsolescence)
> So I will continue to buy less stuff of low quality, buy quality things and keep the longer.

2. We are being fooled into replacing stuff because of fashion (perceived obsolescence)
> I must admit this is a weak point of mine, but here again I intend to buy only high quality stuff that lasts longer. The so-called "stockverkopen" (inventory sales?) are great for this. Buy high end clothing at low prices. It may be dated, but who cares really.

3. Traditional advertising tells us we are losers if we don't consume.
> So I will fight this kind of campaigns as much as possible! And I'm happy to say we have a number of customers at ONE Agency who have legitimate reasons to market to people (Van Gansewinkel, Nuon, ...).

And by the way ... if you look at the film you may think that this is a US thing only. But I wonder why they New Year fireworks were cancelled in Brussels (and not in New York - 1 million people - or Paris), and why all of these people who would have watched the fireworks could 'safely' roam together through the Nieuwstraat, Avenue Louise and the Grand Place. Is our new Belgian government also pushing consumption?

Gapminder graph demonstrates evolution of Congo

2008-01-02T22:19:00.000+01:00

I decided I want spend my time in 2008 on more valuable, more relevant, less trivial stuff. As always with good intentions one never knows how long they will stick, but I'm going to give it a try. So let's kick off the year with something less worldly then cracked iPhones ...

A TED video I watched over the Christmas holidays sparked my interest for the Gapminder graphs. Since the beginning of my career I've been making the most sophisticate graphs to try and turn complex data series into one clear and simple image. These Gapminder graphs manage to combine five (yes FIVE!) dimensions into one clear and easy to use graphical representation. Check out this combination and see how Congo (the former Belgian Colony) has been doing over the past decades. I guess we don't really have a lot to be proud of ...

Cracked iPhone

2007-12-14T10:33:00.000+01:00

While those people who are stuck with an iPhone 1.1.2 are whining about the fact they can't unlock it ... I sadly have to announce my iPhone was cracked for the second time. It still works perfectly, but looks kind-of 'roughed up' ... weep ...

Tip, don't drop your iphone with the screen flat on the ground.

Larry Lessig on Consumer Generated Content

2007-12-09T18:32:00.000+01:00

My daughter's Wii (...) is proving to be an interesting addition to our home entertainment suite. The Opera browser works pretty good with YouTube and I've been watching a number of TED video's. Most are really great, but Larry Lessig's expose on creativity and law is enlightening and helpful when discussing copyright issues in the 21st century:

I particularly like the part where he points out two extremes that are feeding one-another. On one hand the 'government' (or are it media companies?) keep on pushing rules, laws and technologies that prevent creativity, and on the other hand upcoming generation (the participation generation) have a tendency to break copyright laws by default. Both are wrong, and we need a way in the middle.

In advertising ... dans la pub

2007-11-29T08:29:00.000+01:00

Making fun of the ad business, brush up your french!

It's not a campaign ...

2007-11-24T11:55:00.000+01:00

... but what is it then, and what should it be?

I was at a party with too loud music when a journalist remarked that what ONE Agency did for Humo with Humo Radio was not a campaign. With a bit too much alcohol in my blood I spontaneously replied: a campaign, is that the kind of thing you put in a lot of money to then throw it away after two months? Well, we stopped after two months, so it should qualify as a campaign then :)

Of course Humo radio didi not stop after two months to make it a campaign. It was a test and targeted at the summer festivals and by now it's winter. But the question remains, what is a campaign, and do they have to be short term by definition? I don't think so, on the contrary, a good campaign lasts for years.

So why do we launch campaign? To attain certain objectives: sales, brand notoriety, image building, etc. And that's a job that is never finished. I still haven't met a marketing manager who can go home after a campaign and tell his or her family that all objectives have been met and the final goal has been reached. Reality is different, the work is never finished. A good campaign is based on a sound long term strategy that stems from a fundamental insight of what drives your customers.

Look at it from the customer's perspective. What does he or she think of being bombarded with messages for a few weeks, to then hear nothing about a brand for months. Any expression of creativity, be it a game, a video or a simple banner can live on the internet for months or even years. YoutTube, spele.nel, marketing blogs or brand enthusiast communities build extensive archives of what advertisers produce. And if somebody get to know your brand through a campaign, but there is no place online for the customer to turn to and engage in a conversation, he or she stays behind lonely. Disappointed, or worse even, frustrated probably.

That is why good interactive communication must have it's roots in a permanent platform. Brands must offer their customers a home where they are welcome to engage in a conversation with the brand (and it the people behind it) and their 'fellow-customers'. Such a platform can be build within your own platform, a dedicated platform such as Connections did with www.connectr.be or even a simple group on Facebook can be enough.

So, a campaign is not something in which you put a lot of money to then throw it away after a few months. An interactive strategy is build on a platform that is re-used time and again, and is adapted and improved continuously. In that way, brands can take the media in their own hands and create long term engagement with their customer. Customer will start feeling at home with a brand, making your investment in interactive communication even more worthwhile in the long run.

Sarkozy éjecte la Fraternité

2007-11-24T09:07:00.000+01:00

The New York Times reports on the French President Sarkozy choosing the side of the big media companies in going hard after consumers sharing movies and music over the Internet. The 'balanced' deal is that on one hand internet traffic will be monitored for downloads by the ISP's and 'commission' (read: the download police) will condemn citizens. On the the other hands the content producers are 'obliged' (kindly asked) to distribute content online faster (please define 'faster') and without technical restrictions by which music unreadable on certain platforms (which I interpret as: Let's blame Apple and the iPod, they don't have any big operations in France anyway.).

The 'deal' is what they call a 'tripartite' (three-way) in which the citizens are NOT included, only the 'state', 'rights holders' and 'access providers'.

It really looks like Sarkozy has been hanging out too much with Mr. Bush lately. Over the past weeks the streets of Paris have been filled with people protesting for more money, I hope to see many more protesting for their basic rights. Rather sooner then later Bush will com to take them away just like he did in the U.S..

Or as TechCrunch puts it:

The Gang is BACK!

2007-11-22T17:15:00.000+01:00

We're already at episode 3, but it was about 2 weeks ago or so that Jason Calacanis twittered about the first episode that had been taped (which Steve Gillmor did not appreciate). I immediately went on a search and through another tweet from Jason I discovered the Facebook group Steve had been setting up.

So I listened and enjoyed the first episode. The Gang is to me the ultimate combination of geek talk, visionary insights on new media, useless discussions and a total waste of time. And every time I listen laugh out loud at least once, and I have at least one new insight to think (or blog) about.

Steve's cutting up an episode into 4 pieces again, in spite of a lot of protest in the past. I even embarked on a discussion with him and Tim Coyne through Facebook, but now I must admit the four-piece-version is not so bad after all. There's no advertising (for the time being) but Steve does add a kind of 15 second summary of the beginning of each part, and that helps if you're listening in chunks (which is recommended as the guys ramble on during more then an hour).

So, the Gang is back, and I'm happy :)

If you want to listen too, go through Facebook. It's Steve's way to gather attention metadata ... I guess ... well ... hosting is free and it has a lot of features to 'manage your audience'.

Marketingdriven domain names

2007-11-21T20:35:00.000+01:00

Great 'open brief', it's difficult to make the traditional thinkers understand the new media world. I did my part with the launch of Marketing Congress Community, and it's slowly taking of so I'm hopeful. It's not ill will you know, it just takes time ... a lot of time ....