Rants about wasted advertising space

With the holiday season round the corner, much of our marketing budgets will go to the Christmas and NYE's campaigns. I will not go into the the topic of commercialization of the holiday season, and the advertising clutter it brings with it, however, a drive around the island and a scan of the local print and online advertising initiatives makes you shout at the 'Wasted Advertising Space'

Rant #1: If it is ok for the newspaper on Sunday, it is not ok for the long-standing billboard throughout December
Basic marketing rules state that an outdoor banner should not contain more than 5 words. I will be counting the paragraphs of text and essays which some of our billboards feature.

Rant #2: If it is ok for the newspaper, it is not ok for the dynamic online space
Better use of the online space hints at making the most of what the medium provides. We sometimes limit our websites to a passive information catalog. The result is as simple as the passive medium: passive response (if any)

Rant #3: An out-dated message implies an out-dated brand
With all the advertising messages we get to watch/listen to each day, the out-dated once are the most undesirable for both consumer and brand. Let's count the out-dated advertisements in January!

Rant#4: It's a holiday not a trade fair
Yes we have targets, yes it is THE season, but it is not all about your brand. Really and truly it is never about your brand, so if you intend to shout out loud, keep your audience in mind.

Enough rants for the week. Back to positive thinking!

Today is MoMo day for the 2nd time in Malta

I will be attending the second round of MobileMondays. The first round saw the launch of the MoMo chapter in Malta, two interesting presentations and some quality networking time.

The second edition of MoMo in Malta will see yet another good speaker and a showcase of a Business Project. I hope to have some time to review the 2nd MoMo in some more details.

More information about MoMo at this link: http://www.momomalta.org/

The URL revolution: A wider World Wide Web.

This longish post was featured in the November issue of Technology Sunday, a monthly supplement of The Sunday Times in Malta

The World Wide Web was conceived some 20 years ago. It is the true embodiment of boundless information which may be retrieved across the globe. Today, the web consists of at least 62.4 million websites which is roughly 8.5 thousand new sites for each day the web has been up and running.

The web resides on the Internet. The Internet was born in the US in 1969. It was born amid fear of conflict and war between the east and the west. Today, it connects 1.6 billion people from the east, west and elsewhere.

Locally, the Internet has also brought about big change. Approximately 108 thousand households and business are connected to the Internet and this does not take into account those of us who access the Internet through their mobile or Internet keys. Hundreds of businesses own a website and hundreds of thousands of us own a Facebook profile.

All the above gives the world reason to celebrate the Internet’s 40th birthday, but surely it does not stop here. There are billions of people who are not yet online.

Primarily some of the biggest third world countries lack the necessary infrastructure to access this amazing tool or enough funds to purchase an Internet connected device. Mobile operators in these countries have teamed up to make up for the lack of fixed infrastructure and users are accessing the Internet for the first time through their mobile phone. The ‘One Laptop per Child’ campaign attempts to provide a simple yet connected laptop to children who have till today never gone online.

So as social as we make the Internet to be, as unbounded and limitless as it is described by the definition of the WWW, the Internet still has some limitations and room for improvement.

In the Internet’s 40th year, ICANN, the Internet’s corporation for the assignment of domain names and numbers, announced the introduction of non-Latin characters in web addresses. So far, more than half of current Internet users had to switch their non-Latin based keyboards to key in a simple URL or email. Even though these users where able to include non-Latin characters in the first part of their email or website, the last few characters, also referred to as the top level domain (TLD), had to include Latin script.

As from next year, the Internet will see domain names and emails in full non-Latin script. Countries like China, the Arab-speaking countries and Russia will be the first to benefit from the new non-Latin scripts in their country codes. Web masters in China may do away with the ‘.cn’ at the end of their addresses and replace it with its equivalent in the new Internationalized Domain Names (IDNs).

The move is surely positive for those users who are not as conversant in English or at least, familiar with Latin script. On the other hand, some of the current users, many of them probably residing on this side of the planet, fear this move may hinder the openness of the WWW and create linguistic boundaries.

The truth however is that the popularization of the Internet has made it a social reality and a reflection of what takes place offline. In the real world, some people simply do not understand each other, whilst others make it a point to be conversant in a number of languages. Offline, multi-national companies and global brands have multi-lingual identities which are translated online as country (or at least market) specific websites.

Big countries such as China and Korea did not wait for ICANN to come up with this idea. They have found turn around solutions which allow their many users to key in domains in their own language and be redirected to the original domain.

Apart from the societal aspect of ICANN’s move, the introduction of non-Latin script URLs will mean different things for different players. First of all, as early as today, the move will give rise to a wider range of domain names and therefore create more business for Domain Name registrars. Governments may use IDNs to re-brand their online identities and make the Internet more accessible to the native speaking users.

Marketers and brands should be on the alert to secure any new domain which comes close to their current online addresses. Whilst the new IDNs may offer an opportunity to localize and personalize online brand presence, any user may be faster in purchasing the brand’s IDN version of its online address and trick users through a fake website. The latter is often referred to as a ‘Spoof’ website and may become a security concern, at least initially.

On the technical side, the new IDNs are not as straight forward as the Latin-script domains we have been using for the past four decades. Some online players will need to tweak their popular applications to accept non-Latin scripts.

40 years down the line it is once again conflict (of languages this time) that is possibly about to trigger another big Internet revolution. ICANN’s move has caused mixed reactions in the blogosphere, however, as complicated and difficult as this new online development may be, it’s bridging the gap between the online and offline, making the Internet a better reflection of the real world.

40 years of internet: the basics in steps.

Nothing new, but worth a listen to remind ourselves where online is coming from...

Why some people don't get social media...and why they will get it soon.

I have recently attended Alex Grech's workshop on Social Media. The presentation was music to my ears because it very nicely captured the many thoughts relating to interactive 'marketing' and some new real life insights, some of which triggered us to set up BLAB in the first place.

All throughout the presentation I toyed with one question in my mind: "Why don't we all get it (social media that is)?" Why do you get web masters who aren't yet on the web, on facebook or twitter amongst other social media. Why aren't brand executives urgently concerned about the opportunity that they are missing out on? And finally, why do we consider online (and social) strategy as a cheap marketing alternative which can co-exist by the side of the actual publicity budget?

Adage's article on big brands complaining with Twitter about individuals using their brand name as their personal tweeter identity says it all - the 'old school' brand executive thinks he/she is in control of the brand value, but they're not...the average consumer is. Social media simply amplifies the consumers' dominion on your brand. It has been there for a long time, since consumers discussed their purchases. Nothing has changed except for the technology enabling the discussion.

And the sad news is that it is so obvious...we ignore it.

1 year on, thanks to Blackberry, there is a 25th hr.

Vodafone is celebrating the first anniversary of the BlackBerry® Solution in Malta. We had reviewed the launch of the solution back in October of 2008.

Since 2008, we have seen a number of Blackberry devices running around on desks, in meetings and offices. Since launching in 2008, Vodafone introduced the Pearl and Curve models followed by the Bold. Over the months, Malta has seen several new Curve models and the iconic popular Storm, which was Blackberry's move in the touch-screen market.

I am a biased ambassador of Blackberry, however, you may do the math yourself, benefit from celebration goodies and ask the many Blackberry users about what it actually means to own a Blackberry. Some say that with Blackberry there is a 25th hr!

So happy birthday Blackberry in Malta.

more info: http://bit.ly/1vm7z5

VIRAL - Google does it

When Google launched Gmail it limited it to the initial batch of users and their friends - resulting in exponential take-up

Prior to its Google Wave launch, Google goes a step further. It now uses Twitter (not facebook, not Orkut (Google's own), not any other tool) to spread the word - resulting in...up to us all really!

Here goes my tweet:
karlgalea Just requested my Google Wave Invite! Get yours at http://www.google.com-wave.... - #googlewave #googlewaveinvite

Tomorrow, you will not access facebook.com

This is a longish post about how Augmented Reality could revolutionize the virtual space as we know it. The post was featured in the September edition of Technology Sunday.

Today, you probably start and end the day with Facebook. If not you, 70,000 locals do. Facebook, and all the other social media tools, changed the way we consume the web. Prior to that you would read the news on timesofmalta.com but now you get to read a news headline because someone else posts it. Today, you can just get the snippets of your favourite websites on your profile in the form of widgets or boxes. iGoogle is the perfect example of how at least 65 million webpages need to rethink their strategy for staying in touch with you. Similar tools allow you to even do away with Google’s humble homepage.

The social web has re-defined the World Wide Web and added a social context to it. Everything is social. Every site or item which goes online has a social value. Users tag it, post it, blog about it and share it in all kinds of ways.

Tomorrow, the web will experience another wave of innovation which will revolutionize the way we interact with content and communicate with each other. Augmented Reality (AR) will fragment the social web into layers of data, sitting on nothing more than real-time video streams of the real world. We will access the web as layers of information overlaid on the real 3D objects (or people) they relate to.

Before, online games were played individually, through the browser. Then came the social web - our friends could join the game too and play with us in real-time. Eventually, we stopped playing games on the specific web-pages and simply played any game through our favourite social tool.. Tomorrow, we will be playing the same game but the protagonists will not be 3D images which represent objects or users, we will have real objects and real people moving around our screen. They will be fed through the camera of our mobile device (whatever the device may be) and an application will overlay computer graphics on the real-life video feeds.

Actually, we are already seeing hints of this today. To launch the HTC Magic in one of the markets in which it operates, Vodafone has used an AR application which allowed two teams to compete head to head by tagging their rivals through image recognition of coloured shirts using the device itself.

In 2001 the first AR Browser was launched. The browser acted as an AR based interface to the web. Though innovative, the RWWW system was not very practical due to its cumbersome AR hardware which included a head mounted display. 7 years later Wikitude implemented a similar, but more compact idea on a mobile phone. The more recent browser combines location data with Wikipedia entries. This year a similar concept was implemented through Layar. The browser builds on Wikitude’s concept by reducing traditional webpages into content layers sitting on top of each other and overlaid on the real world video feeds.

However, what is most important is not how all this is done but what it really means for us. AR complements the convergence of online and offline worlds. Online social networks are really a reflection of what happens in the offline world. AR blends the real (offline) world with the online information and services. Rather than a reflection, the web will gradually become part of what we see when we move around the real world.

In practice, AR will allow us to consume the web in a completely new way. When in a big crowd, I could poke you without logging onto the Facebook homepage by simply nudging your real-life image, fed into my device through its camera. Paypal’s changehowwepay.com envisages a future in which I could scan images of any product at the supermarket and ‘drag’ them onto my virtual shopping cart.

Industry leaders are aware of all this and they are doing something about it. At the 2009 International Symposium on Mixed and Augmented Reality (ISMAR), AR will not only be discussed in context of scientific and technological advancements but also as part of a wider initiative to make the most of AR technology in arts, media and humanities.

Needless to say, if AR had to become the standard way of web consumption, once again, brand managers would have to re-think the way they put their brand in context of the real world. The fancy online spaces which they have invested in have already been humbled by social networks which feed content from them to our social profile, doing away with the nice design on the brand’s site.

However it is not all doom and gloom. If the social web made brands social and helped them to relate to us through our network of friends, then it should only get better. AR will put brands in context. Tomorrow, brands will not only be able to relate to our circle of friends but also customize their message in context of what we wear, where we go and what we see. In parallel, we will probably see the death of the traditional webpage.

Recap: B2C Strategy 2.0

I came across this conference I had participated in, the slides of which are available at this link: http://www.mca.org.mt/infocentre/openarticle.asp?WsAppId=590&id=1238&pin=podfk5465g4v6e5r4g6

The presentation is almost a year old. I'd like to revisit it and check what's still valid!

Two weeks to go to the iCentre competition

The iCentre is again inviting creatives to submit the next TV ad. The competition closes on the 30th of September.

New/Re-designed Websites

A number of agencies are re-vamping new online spaces for all sorts of brands. What hit my inbox this week:


Designed by NIU for Ok Ltd. Visit website at ok.com.mt


Designed by ICON for Stephanie Borg. Visit website at stephanieborg.com

Taking the 'ego' out of ego-centric

There are two modes of expression, ego-centric and x-centric, which sounds and should be a lot like 'eccentric' however allowing space for the x to be anything (be it customer, purpose, motive) but your ego.

What's the benefit of the latter?

Primarily, it's not about you;
Secondly, it's not about you and can give in to other complementary or opposing ideas. It follows from the belief that collective ideating is better than individual.
Thirdly, it's not about you and so leaves room for feedback, criticism and listening which otherwise you wouldn't bother to give attention to.

It's harder than we think to take the ego out of ego-centric and be open to alternative viewpoints. It requires questioning all the time whether you stand for your ego or your objective above anything else!

MoMo Malta launching today

Today MobileMonday (MoMo) will be launching in Malta. Event details below:

Date of launching event
Monday, 14th September 2009, from 18:00h to 22:00h

Venue: The Palace Hotel, High Street, Sliema SLM1542, Malta

Speakers:
Jari Tammisto
CEO/President, MobileMonday Global
Madanmohan Rao
Director of Educaton Project, Mobile Monday. International Consultant, and Speaker in over 60 countries.

Topic: Mobile Industry in Malta - The State of Play

Registration:
Attendance is free and only by invite. Register Here

Says it all in one big blab - Why 2.0 is not a number or a fad

15 minute catch-up

I am catching up on a number of emails and readings. For a change I'll list what I catch-up on below:

23:10: Old School Music by Lauryn Hill at MTV Unplugged. Music is interactive and definately a marketing tool so make sure to listen to as much music as you can!

23:13: Remember Technology Sunday? Well I hope to be able to write some more on the suppliment or elsewhere. Doing some thinking on a possible topic.

23:14: Networking is useful. It starts off from the fact that collective intelligence is more powerful than individual so I've just accepted a LinkedIn invitation from a friend who now works in telecoms like i do.

23:18: Sorting deadlines for some forms I have to fill in.

23:23: Discover new ventures. I planning to post some more interviews about new projects and just got one in my mailbox. Will hopefully BLAB about it shortly.

23:24: Last minute...

23:28 (exceeded catch-up time by 3 minutes) Staying hungry - checking on what to read/study in the coming year

23:30: (2 more minutes) Some more posting about the latest happenings at ICON which emails me regularly with fresh new projects: ICON just launched 'a fresh, SEO-efficient portal' for local artist, Stephanie Borg: http://www.stephanieborg.com/steffiborg/home.aspx

23:32: Back to work!

Blab & steal attention "from anywhere"

I got this Twitter status by email:

'BBC Radio 1 to broadcast Coldplay's Glasgow gig on Sept 18th (listen online from anywhere) - http://bit.ly/Z7qGg'

Have you ever driven for long distances, driving for hours, crossing boarders and countries? Well if you have/had to do that you would know that your car stereo would switch from one radio station to the other on the same or nearby frequency. Some of the radios are specific to the area and broadcast traffic updates as you cross the region. Very useful, however very old school. Today you can broadcast content from anywhere and you don't have neither size nor geographic limitations.

This is great news however not totally: the massive content clutter makes my blog one of many many, and hence, empowered by the internet which allows an unqualified blogger like me to broadcast his thoughts, I am actually less important than ever. If I really had to be serious about being important online, I would have to devise an attention stealing strategy!

However, I may resort to the 'Blab & follow' strategy. I'll blab when I think it is appropriate, as we all do on our facebook, twitter, blogger accounts, and then wait for some attention to be given to me. A long-tail, a big long tail of blabs give us a long tail of attention - little amounts of attention for everyone to be happy wherever ("from anywhere")!

Blank sheet approach - adds freshness

I'd like to drop a line or two about the fresh page / blank sheet approach. This post is less about interactive marketing and more about how we work, which explains that I am doing less reading and more working...which is a contradiction because I strongly believe that the more you work, the more you should read and stay in touch.

A fresh page is a clean start, a beginning. A fresh page does not mean forgetting about the mistakes and successes of past projects but implies entering the room or kick starting a project objectively and openly. A fresh blank sheet implies not being biased from the start, it highlights the need to listen carefully, look at the issue from all possible unexplored perspectives and then if necessary go back to the baggage you carry around with you from past projects you've been involved in.

Text by DESA

I have recently been involved in a project by the English students association DESA. The above is the end result of their hard work and enthusiasm. There is no financial business model in the project but a freshness of colour, discovery and literature. To get to know more about DESA visit their online space at http://soc.um.edu.mt/desa-soc/latest.html

Social brands and latest news

I admire brands which regularly update their followers/consumers about what they're up to. Some of these brands regularly send e-newsletters which are less of a promotional message and more of an informative one. Often, they even add tips which are in-line or adjacent to their area of expertise.

There other brands though, brands that BLAB in bursts, surprise their followers and then go to sleep for some weeks or months. Then they burst again when research highlights they have been losing appeal or trust. These brands under-estimate the value of news! Their news section is often hidden somewhere in their website. Their latest news section is often not up to date with the latest news and their news is no news but a promotional BLAB. In contrast, social brands interact socially. Social brands update their twitter status and tell us what's on their mind. Social brands allow us to connect and follow. Social brands enable us to speak about them in the online world because they are online.

I am a social being and it is easier for me to engage with a social side of a big commercial brand.

Happy Birthday Blogger

A worthy blab for Blogger which turns 10 next Sunday and hosts this blog amongst many. A good review about Blogger's roots and history at TechCrunch: http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/08/17/before-there-was-twitter-there-was-blogger-and-its-turning-10/

Freshness Index

Image Source: toxel.com

I'd like to dedicate this 2 minute blab on my/your/our 'freshness index':

How fresh am I in the ideas I propose and the solutions I come up with? How open am I to alternative perspectives to one particular problem? How often do I reject the first idea? How often do I read loads of different stuff which exposes me to areas other then my everyday interests? - That's how fresh I am/you/we are!

Now I believe the above makes an individual fresh in his/her approach to life and therefore work. Now trow in the same room, office or house a bunch of such 'fresh' individuals and watch the freshness multiply and grow exponentially!

Now imagine the opposite happening in a mainstream office (of which we have many)...and cry!

Freshness brings freshness, and that it should be on our priority list at any level in any big, small or medium organization.

Defining Johnnie Walker's brand persona

Top1 Video Ad. at Creativity-Online

Blab! Blab!...Blab! - Wave

I've just been humbled by the Google Wave Demo which, as big as it may sound, could possible redefine the social web as we know it.

Currently this social web allows me to blab and allows you to blab back.

With Google wave, I will blab and at the same time, you could edit my blab or blab back. The blabs could come from anywhere, be it the wave client or any other blabbing medium such as twitter, facebook and all. We were amazed with an app that allowed us to blab in twitter and update our facebook status at the same time, now get that and make it the norm, and don't even limit it to text, include images, videos, links, documents, etc.

Obviously, to add more colour to the wave project, the wave client can be embedded in any social web tool, making the conversations (Blab!, Blab!...Blab!), the same one, irrelevant of the tool.

In conclusion, who will need websites anyways. Website links will feature in waves and the online widget for that web will feature in the conversation.

Ironically, all this happens in the browser. Would I be wrong to say that once the desktop becomes the browser, the offline content is stored online...then it is a series of waves and blabs...and it is one big thing.

It's late and i am hyped up, so I'll stop here!

If you are geeky enough, spend sometime watching the 1.5hr demo http://wave.google.com/ (I am open to a demo night with lots of popcorn and lots of discussion)

Monday blab: websites and the 5 eras of the social web

I have come across a chart promoting one of Forrester's Research tackling the future of the Social Web. The chart has been sitting on my desktop for quite some time. Over this weekend I have also dedicated sometime to the Razorfish Feed report. The latter is a recommended read for anyone flirting with the 2.0, cutting edge interactive technology or digital overall. It offers brief chapters about anything from the device, to the browser, to the end of the browsing content itself.

In this context I believe the Forrester chart may in the future conflict with the 'Razorfish vision'. Rightly so the Forrester research speaks about the evolution of social WEB and assumes websites will be at the heart of the social web (at least in the above graphical chart). Really and truly though, web sites may soon come to an end. As Kevin Kelly rightly explains, the web of things will replace the web as we know it, away from the screen or standard device. However the chart may not say it all. Finally I managed to find an interview with Jeremiah Owyang which explains the future eras much better than the chart and complements Kelly's vision. The question though remains, will there be any website in 5 years time?

I am posting both videos below:


Kevin Kelly predicts the next 5000 days of the social web


Jeremiah Owyang on the 5 eras of the social web

Countdown to 'The Chaos Scenario'

Read read read! This is what I did not do best lately. Digital is interesting and very powerful, however digital is also very futuristic and as a result highly unclear. August 3 will mark the launch of 'The Chaos Scenario'. The book is written by Bob Garfield.

Quoting from the adage site 'the book documents the converging forces he believes doom mass media and mass marketing as we've always known them. The historic disintegration of "mass," he writes in the introduction, "will change your media environment in dramatic ways. It will change the advertising industry in melodramatic ways."

In the second half of the book, Garfield goes on to discuss what he calls the "art and science of Listenomics," which begins with the recognition that neither marketers nor any other institution accustomed to dictating from the top can do so for much longer. Garfield prescribes a series of measures in the digital-technology and social-media realms for not only listening to the "group formerly known as the audience," but treating them as stakeholders with much to contribute to a brand, and to every aspect of the economy and society.'


More about this at the adage site: http://adage.com/article?article_id=138006

Barclays Fake World: this is worth a sincere blab!

The above ad is the latest ad by Barclays. The ad has made it to Creativity-Online top 5 of this week. The ad reminds me so much of The Truman Show film. The Barclays spot wisely puts the Barclays brand above all other brands in context of the current economic crisis in which big banks caused so much trouble!

Espresso and aggregation

Here it goes, TimesofMalta has upscaled its aggregation efforts, and it style if I may add. The new Espresso section aggregates the top stories in one simple page. I would add an RSS feed to the site and possibly a twitter status update!
Have a look: http://www.timesofmalta.com/espresso

Should brands be afraid of 2.0?!

The below BLAB is features today in Technology Sunday, a supplement of the Sunday Times

If the online space were an offline physical environment, say a massive open market, it would consist of at least 62.4 million stands and 93.6 million other booked spaces awaiting their owners to fill up the stand with stuff ready to be sold, shared or exchanged. Some 1.2 billion prospective customers would be able to visit the market 24 hours a day whilst four billion other customers would be allowed to take the millions of stands with them wherever they are.

With all these numbers you would expect huge queues and confusion but in truth the market allows each visitor to go directly to the stand he or she is looking for, skipping any possible queues and speaking directly to the stand owner. Some stands have even invested in multi-lingual staff who can communicate in any language, even Maltese at times. Others have even bought additional space just next to their stand. Here customers speak about their purchases and recommend champion products and services they themselves have tried out.

For frequent customers stand owners offer a more personal service by only showing what they think are the most relevant products. They base their assumptions on the customers’ past purchases and interests.

Some companies have come up with easy to use directories which search for specific stands or products and guide new customers around.

Clearly the web space is a very big virtual world with web pages being added everyday and online users being able to access it from any imaginable device. There are on average at least 52,000 customers on each stand and this is good news for brands because now they have a much bigger audience with which they can relate in a flexible and personal manner.

However this is not the full story and some brands may need to revisit their positioning online. Back to the open market analogy, customers are visiting the stands much less often than before because now they are allowed to set up their own stand, equally attractive and probably more entertaining and personal than the other stands. Instead of visiting the other stands they invest more time in customizing their little space and hang out with their friends in their own social network.

This is very bad news for brands. I pity brands because offline they compete with other brands for a mindshare, but online, brands compete with us, their current and prospective customers. Susan Boyle’s Facebook page has over 1.7 million fans exceeding by far fan pages of established giant brands such as H&M.

All these shifts in the online space led some brands to consider socializing with us. Some brands have joined Facebook or Twitter and have their own profile or fan page. Other brands have tried to get some space on our personal profiles by launching branded wallpapers and viral applications. In some cases, established brands have been successful in acting as a channel, enabling us to meet and discuss their products on their own branded space. Some brands have actually managed to do this successfully thanks to their well planned strategies and brand appeal. The buzz generated over the iPhone has garnered Apple the top place on a list of the Top 100 Social Brands. Suddenly it seems the story ends and we (brands and customers alike) lived happily ever after.

However some giant brands have spent huge amounts of money in bombarding our humble online spaces and failed. At the end of the day, why should we be-friend a marketing guy hopelessly trying to make the numbers at the end of the month?!

Chris Anderson, an online marketing expert, highlighted two reasons why we tend to be willing to be-friend a brand, blog about it and become brand ambassadors. None of these are financial.

The first reason is time-related. Useful or entertaining applications allow us to make better use of our time. When a brand comes up with an addictive application we are willing to spend some (or a lot of) time with that brand.

Customers are keen on being the centre of attention as much as brands would like to be. Brands who manage to put the spot light on the customers are guaranteed to make friends with these same customers and never be alone again! Similarly to hanging out with the in-crowd or wearing branded clothes, some brands add value to our reputation and it’s worth carrying them around, even when browsing online.

There you have it; money is not the be all and end all, especially during the recession. The good news for brands is that in 2.0 mode they have a choice. They could add value to our time and reputation in return for some attention or alternatively be stubborn and hold on to their confined online space. In the latter there is a high probability they will be left alone with ample time to think of how small they were when they started off, simply because online they are.

Spotted in Malta - SellMalta.com

Just came across another new online space - sellmalta.com. The website is an online directory of buyers and sellers in property.

Recap 2009 - May

These past 4 months have seen me slowing down on my blabs about what's happening in the local media scene so the below is the first of many recaps which I hope will help me regain momentum. I will start off by drawing the top 10 developments i can recap on. They are not exclusive and the list is highly subjective on my memory...so feel free to add more to it if you wish. I will make the list available on my facebook and twitter just in case people want add more:

#1: Re-Branding:
Some websites which have got a facelift during the past months: xfmmalta.com, maltastar.com, maltamedia.com, iralosco.com, kiwilicous.com

#2: New social sites on the block:
Blog.com.mt, Youall.com.mt and a mini social site at mep2009.eu!

#3: New bloggers:
Most of the MEP Candidates, some EP election ambassadors, lifestyle bloggers on timesofmalta, maltastar and fmlifestyle.com

#4: Hello Twitter
Twitter is slowly slowly getting into the social identity of many Maltese. We're still unsure of how to best use it and some of us still ponder on the difference between the facebook status and twitter. However, twitter is more confined and that's great.

#5: Moving online
Exotique.com.mt launched its online shop, Yellowpages now advertises the website alongside 'the book' in all its radio ads.,

#6: Print struggles but online offers some hope
I believe the stylish ME magazine is no more a print one but an online design web at medesignmag.com. FM is on the other hand still going strong and relaunched itself online sometime in 2008.

#7: New in print:
Some new names include Pjazza and Phasebook. The most popular distribution channel seems to be The Times, with anyone opting for the ad-funded free distribution model. Does anyone subscribe the magazine anymore?!

#8: Radio and Digital
Malta is still experiencing the introduction of DAB. We just got one of these DAB radios at home and it does offer a much wider range of radio content. I wonder how this will impact advertising on the local channels, when the foreign ones capture a share of the listening time. In the meantime, Capital 88.7 is no more and has now become 5FM. The station is currently testing transmission and slowly gaining listenership.

#9: In TV, Calypso Radio has rebranded th U-TV to Calypso Music TV. Other channels which were concieved recently are Favourite TV and Family TV.

#10: In conclusion, the summer sun is hinting at the fixed media that time's up and very soon we will be spending our free time at the beach. The mobile media, both traditional (print) and leading edge (mobile) will accompany us. We will get to know about breaking news through TimesSMS and entertain ourselves with the flashy magazine we get with the papers on Sunday. Logical recommendation for the fixed media brands...mobilize you brand now!

Blackberry Storm hits the track

Not only did the storm land in Malta but have a look at what it did on the track :)



Get one now: http://www.vodafone.com.mt/page/services_business_mobilemail_bb.html

There's too much media...so aggregate!

Aggregate, aggregate, aggregate. If the consumer is now the producer, do not try to compete or join in the discussion, simply aggregate the twits, posts, comments or any blab and let the normal mortal beings online be at the centre of the buzz.

I have just come across tinker.com, another aggregation tool for brands. Tinker allows anyone to get all the twits related to a particular topic or brand. Tinker even allows brands to embed the twittering stream on their brand site. In essence, stop blabbing about your brand, go out, see what your customers are saying about this and paste it on your site.

Tinker is not the first buzz aggregator there is. My favourite is twistori.com which again is based on the twitter social network.

All this aggregation precedes my article on The Times Technology Sunday supplement which is to be published at the end of May...but more about this later on this month!

Vodafone Malta seeks an innovation champion through i-MashUP

This month Vodafone launched the i-Mashup competition for the developer community where participants are being urged to be as innovative as possible in designing and developing a mobile application until September 1, 2009.

The winners will receive top cash prizes with the opportunity of also winning an additional star prize. First placed winner will get €2500, second place will get €1000 and third place will get €500.

Mobile applications are small software applications that are installed on mobile handsets or accessed online via mobile handset browsers that interact with online services or platforms.

Entries will be assessed on usability, innovation and value to users.

The i-Mashup competition is open to anyone over 18 years of age. Participants must register as developers for the i-Mashup competition by sending an email toimashup.mt@vodafone.com. Entries, which need to be written in English, must be given a descriptive name (ex: Weather Application). There are no limitations on the number of applications one can submit for this competition.

What we think?
This is probably the first mobile application initiative on the island, so welcome in innovation!

More info: click here

Revisiting Charlie’s Chocolate Factory in 2.0

The below BLAB is today being featured in Technology Sunday, a supplement in the Sunday Times of Malta.

When Willy Wonka decided to reveal his secret chocolate recipes he hid a limited number of tickets in chocolate bars. Charlie was lucky enough to find one of the five golden tickets and could then experience what it’s like to get inside a real chocolate factory. At that time, Charlie Bucket had no Facebook profile and the genius behind the Wonka Chocolate Empire could at best have dreamt of the world-wide (Wonka) web.

It only took an ex-NASA Space Shuttle entrepreneur and the brain behind the full range of Wired content brands to revisit Wonka’s business ideas and open the door to an amazing chocolate venture they called Tcho. Technology and chocolate drive Louis Rosetto and Timothy Childs to pursue Tcho. Both of them have vast experience in a multitude of projects. In 1993 Rosetto co-founded Wired Magazine and became its first editor. Wired Books, Wired TV and a list of digital ventures including HotBot.com followed. Childs on the other hand worked at NASA Space Shuttle, launched Cabaret Chocolates and has been involved in a number of community building projects such as Web3D RoundUp.

Tcho involves chocolate enthusiasts and customers in the making of its chocolate products. Tcho Beta precedes any Tcho chocolate products. Limited batches of chocolate are packaged in simple brown paper bags and made available to customers who want to be part of Tcho’s continuous flavour developments. Varieties of the chocolate beta are constantly produced with new versions emerging as often as every 36 hours. The beta products are made available online or at the Tcho factory store. Following a lengthy beta process, the end product is launched, this time with proper branded packaging and bigger mass runs.

The Tcho community aspect does not stop here. Tcho makes its ‘secret’ recipe available on its website for the community to try out. Recently Tcho founders even commissioned an iPhone application which will enable users of the device to monitor the Tcho labs wherever they are.

With the founders’ technological background and love for chocolate it comes as no surprise that the Tcho project follows a similar product development process found in an IT company. However what really stands out in the Tcho business plan is not the technical expertise of the founding team but the strong community engagement enabled by but not limited to web 2.0 tools such as blogs and online social networks.

2.0 is a vague concept for many of us. There are many brands, even locally, which have their own Facebook page or blog but one basic rule must lie at the heart of any strategy: 2.0 may sound geeky, technical and complex but in truth it is as simple as putting communities at the centre. The latter is not really optional.

When brands forget to put the community at the centre of their digital strategy, the community, enabled by the web and the social networks which reside on it, jumps into the brand’s driving seat. Cadbury conceived Wispa back in 1981. The first trial was a massive success selling 10,000 bars. Consequently, in 1983 Wispa was launched on a larger scale and grew more popular then ever. Wispa’s success story seemed to have come to an end in 2003 when Cadbury decided to stop producing the popular chocolate bar following a slowdown in sales.

However, the community thought otherwise. More than 5000 fans joined an online group on Bebo and campaigned for a Wispa comeback. Not only did the group manage to trigger buzz online but some of the fans even went as far as going up on stage during Iggy Pop’s performance at Glastonbury Festival. On stage they held a big banner which read ‘Bring back Wispa’. Cadbury, which had probably invested in serious market research before pulling the plug on the product, reconsidered its decision and committed to a 23 million run, saying it was the first time it had resumed production of a product because of online pressure.

So let’s revisit Willy Wonka’s business case in 2.0 mode: For a start Willy Wonka would not keep his chocolate making recipe a secret; on the contrary he would instead put that at the test of Wonka’s loyal customer base. Wonka would be wise enough to know that Facebook is much more than a tool which connects people, that there’s more to blogging than a modern version of a personal diary echoing in the absence of readers, and that Twitter does not only tell you what your neighbour has been up to lately. Charlie Bucket, an ordinary customer who is loyal to the Wonka brand would probably run the ilovewonka.com blog which would also be present on Facebook. Wonka fans would join the group and invite their friends. Instead of limiting the factory tour to 5 lucky chocolate enthusiasts, the Wonka empire would have a virtual tour of the factory or a live webcam of its daily operations. Willy Wonka would not have to run the golden ticket promotion because he would head hunt Charlie as the next CEO. And, lastly, you could be the next Charlie Bucket running the Wonka Chocolate Empire.

One may not know everything about Web 2.0 and how it can help drive a successful strategy but, before opening up to innovative applications and web services, one should understand that 2.0 is first and foremost an extremely social concept.

Amazing brain twitting project!

Reported on CNN, scientists have developed a way to post messages on Twitter using electrical impulses generated by thought.

What 2.0 means for brands

Nicely put, the community is at the centre! Brands just watch the space.

Don't speak digital...I'm an artist!

If all artists had to move away from the myth that an artist is a strange being, scared from anything that is logical, technical and/or digital they would realize that the social web is much more social and as a result, fits their free spirit much more than they think. Some projects are evidence of how free spirits have used digital to extend their love for art and warm emotions:

www.twistori.com

www.earstudio.com/projects/listeningpost.html

www.wefeelfine.org

and finally, as geekiest and artistic as can be:
http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/joann_kuchera_morin_tours_the_allosphere.html

Waiting for Vevo!

Speaking about the longtail in my previous post, seems the longtail will still be owned by the big networks. Google's YouTube has teamed up with Universal Music Group in a revenue-sharing agreement on an ad-funded music service which is said to be the 'Hulu' of music.

Read on adage: http://adage.com/digital/article?article_id=135908

Digital Family Trees

If like me you are a fan of the digital world than you need this link: (http://adage.com/digitalfamilytrees09/) and this poster (http://adage.com/images/random/datacenter/2009/digitalfamilytrees09.pdf) to find your way through the leading digital entities and services. But then again, where would my/your dream digital start-up feature one day?

What the tribes say (part 1 of many)

At the beginning of this year, or even earlier than that, I had come across Tribes, the popular book by Seth Godin. I have not commited myself to get the book as yet because a long list of titles awaits my attention near my bedside table, my virtual desk and at the office. But with Tribes, comes The Tribes Casebook, which is a free ebook written by the tribe at Triibes.com. Before leaving this page to read more about Triibes.com, you may want to to know that this community is currently by invite only. If on the other hand you are smiling simply because you are one of the Triibes clan, then please be kind and send us at BLAB an invite. We're really delighted to know more!

Well in brief, the Tribes Casebook is a book written by a community which started off as part of the actual book project. The book is some 250 pages long and says a lot about small/big communities in society. I would like to commit to share some of them. This should help me to write and read regularly about different communities, which are key in the 2.0 world!

So the first tribe falls in the category of Tribes you don't want to belong to, one of which is 'The tribe of the Disabled'. Jon Morrow, the author of this section of the book, starts off by explaining how people may join this tribe, sometimes by accident, sometimes involuntary from birth. Jon states:

"Some people take it hard. They feel like they’ve been kidnapped from another tribe, the Tribe of Normal People. They feel like everything they were and everything they knew was taken away.

Eventually though, most of us realize that the Tribe of Normal People doesn’t actually exist. There’s no bond between the nondisabled. There are no leaders among them. There are no rules. It doesn’t exist."

And from a tribe which no one wants to belong to, many realize this tribe is about courage. "It takes courage to look at yourself and accept your imperfections. It takes courage to love yourself anyway. It takes courage to go beyond merely trying to survive your life and start trying to actually enjoy it."

This is the first tribe the Casebook speaks about, but i think it sets the parameters for most of the other tribes, what's common within and what's alien to the ones outside.

The above discussion is drawn from The Tribes Casebook. Get the Casebook here: http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2008/10/free-tribes-ebo.html

For the lost facebook souls

Facebook has a new layout and many are lost. I think the homepage tour helps navigation so here it goes: http://www.facebook.com/sitetour/homepage_tour.php

Strangely, Facebook never seems to please its networks members in each redesign. Also, the redesign is not a gradual one which results in the need of a map/tour!

Vodafone launches first netbook in Malta

Vodafone has over the weekend launched the first netbook locally. For the record, a netbook is a laptop with in-built mobile broadband functionality. In simple terms, you may get the netbook, go on campus and start browsing without the need of an internet key, WiFi or wired connection.

The usual disclaimer follows: I work with Vodafone and so am bound to be slightly biased so have a look for yourself:

More info:
http://www.vodafone.com.mt/page/DellInspironMini9.html

Online enquiry:
http://www.vodafone.com.mt/jsp/vfm_online_enq/view.jsp

I'm an iPhone, I'm a Blackberry!

If you are into Apple you may have easily come across the 'I'm a Mac, I'm a PC' ads. Well since Apple is moving into phones and mobiles, it has another rival...Blackberry!

Even tough I am more of the impression that Blackberry is a business device whilst iPhone is a fun smartphone, any brand wants a bigger share of the pie, even if technically it was never originally its own.

The below ad. is evidence of this and is doing very well virally speaking:

Work in progress

We're currently re-designing our web layout. Feel free to feedback. It's a totally transparent process!

The Valletta Waterfront’s new site goes live with ICON

VISET Malta plc’s Valletta Waterfront is loved by passengers, tourists and locals alike and offers state of the art sea passenger terminal facilities and is an ideal shopping, dining and entertainment location, in one of the most unique spots in the Mediterranean. The historical development, which dates back more than 250 years, is set overlooking the majestic Grand Harbour and the picturesque Three Cities.

What was once a derelict piece of land has been well and truly transformed into an area oozing appeal. With the help of web-development company, ICON, VISET Malta plc now has a website to reflect their forward-looking approach.

ICON is one of Malta’s leading web development companies known for their world-class sites that are both design-focused and feature-rich. This recently launched site is expansive and covers all facets of VISET’s varying focuses. It features an easy-to-use interface which walks visitors through the corporate section of the site offering detailed information about the company and the terminal facilities. It also boasts sections on the commercial parts of the Valletta Waterfront including a comprehensive list of restaurants, bars, clubs and offices. An exciting addition is the EarthCam which links directly to live images of the Grand Harbour 24 hours a day.

ICON company director Gege Gatt said: “VISET approached us with their creative ideas for their new site and we were happy to assist them every step of the way”.

Anna Maria Sciberras, Business Development Executive at the Valletta Waterfront commented, “Now launched, the site provides valuable information, to ensure that all visitors and people in the trade are updated and well-informed. Through the tailor-made tools provided by ICON, our personnel can easily update the information on the site as regularly as needed. Its technology benefits both the company and our esteemed clients.”

The site is now up and running at: www.vallettawaterfront.com.

Creative squares at 68th St. Lucy Str.

The original house which launched the Redprints exhibition some months ago will be soon hosting Square. The good news for all creatives is that Square will be hosting your 10 by 10 creative squares. Submission deadline is in a month's time.

Read it all online at:
http://redprintsblog.com/2009/02/12/square/

The art of 'collective'

I was recently reviewing the latest HBR Breakthrough Ideas for 2009 and stumbled upon a very interesting read about collective creativity at Pixar. If I may, the art of 'collective' is something we lack in creative circles locally. My perspective of a creative locally is either that of a cut-off artist or a creative business (wo)man who is too creative to share (her) his stuff. Obviously, exceptions do exist and this blog hopes to be a living proof of this!

Go to HBR article:
http://hbr.harvardbusiness.org/2008/09/how-pixar-fosters-collective-creativity/ar/1

EU 2.0

17 leading web firms have signed for the first time a European agreement to improve the safety of under 18's who use social networking sites. These include Arto, Bebo, Dailymotion, Facebook, Giovani.it, Google/YouTube, Hyves, Microsoft Europe, Myspace, Nasza-klaza.pl, Netlog, One.lt, Skyrock, StudiVZ, Sulake/Habbo Hotel, Yahoo!Europe, and Zap.lu.

Social networking sites are an emerging social and economic phenomenon, attracting 41.7 million regular users in Europe and changing the way we interact with each other on the Web. The use of social networks has grown over the past year by 35% in Europe and is expected to more than double to 107.4 million users by 2012.

To make sure that social networks continue to grow, young users need to feel safe when expanding their networks or sharing any personal information. The agreement signed in Luxembourg at the Safer Internet Day organised by the European Commission will empower teenagers to deal with potential risks they may face online, like cyberbullying or revealing personal information.

full article on gozonews.com:
http://gozonews.com/item/safer-internet-day-social-networking-sites-sign-eu-agreement/

A brand gone viral both offline and online

We've been saying all the way that online and offline are becoming one converged reality and so if a brand goes viral online, it would be happening like-wise offline. This article reinforces this stream of thought.

Obama mania hits the catwalks of Rome

An International Hit: ICON Launches inlingua’s New Web Portal

An international company with schools in over 300 spots worldwide needs to make a substantial splash in the cyber world too. And it was for that reason that inlingua’s local branch trusted ICON with the long-awaited revamp and re-launch of their web portal.

With users all over the world, ICON faced the challenge of creating an easy-to-use, technology savvy and information rich site that would prove successful wherever it was accessed. In fact, the site easily ties in with the company’s motto: ‘Learning English is fun and easy’, as it was designed around bright colours and an outwardly simple interface that has already been a hit with the school’s students, whatever their level of English.

As one of Malta’s leading web development companies, ICON is used to facing challenges and is keen to work to any specifications in order to develop a site which fits its users like a glove. Using their own, patented ICON.snap™ technology, the company has created a portal that can be updated constantly, ensuring it is ever-evolving throughout the seasons and semesters of the school calendar. The site also includes varied sections on accommodation, things to do while in Malta and what to expect while here.

ICON company director Gege Gatt said: “We set out to create a site that can be appreciated worldwide, which speaks volumes through its simplicity and which appeals to people whatever their current level of understanding in English. Should students prefer, they can also choose to view the information in their own language too as special care went into its multi-lingual translations.”

“The school would like to take their international marketing to the next level, and this site will help them to get there. Keeping cultural differences in mind we developed a web portal that is easy to surf and to understand. The site also sports full integration with many Web 2.0 tools such as FLICKR, Facebook, Skype, Blogspot and Twitter.”

The site is now LIVE and visitors are welcome to take a look at: http://www.inliguamalta.com/.

ICON gladly accepts invite to present FELTOM webportal

The Federation of English Language Teaching Organisations Malta (FELTOM) has taken the lead in establishing quality assurance standards in the EFL industry on the island. Almost 70% of students choose FELTOM member schools when they visit Malta to improve their English Language skills. The member schools add up to a sum of 15 schools around Malta.

On the 20th of January FELTOM held its Annual General Meeting in which ICON was invited to launch the new FELTOM website and present strategies and ideas to assist FELTOM in maximising the potential of the Internet. In a presentation entitled ‘Making the web work for you’, Dr. Gege Gatt, Director for Strategy & Business Development at ICON, discussed the opportunity presented by new Social Network platforms and how these may be used to reach a growing spectrum of Internet users. Evidencing an unprecedented shift in media consumption from passive-viewing to personal-control by web-users, the Internet presents an audience of over a billion users worldwide who interact daily within communities.

A recent study by McCann shows that 57% of all Internet users worldwide are now members of some form of online Social Network. Such networks have evolved significantly in the past year as they morph into platforms that support a gamut of needs of their users. It is critical for EFL operators to embrace these new channels to reach an increasingly online and tech-savvy community of potential customers.

In presenting www.feltom.com Dr. Gatt overview three key technology modules which are deployed in the portal being: ICON.SNAP™ - an award winning web based content management system, allowing clients to keep their websites up to date; ICON.acces™ - an access-control system allowing access to restricted data to privileged users only and ICON.banner™ - a means of generating advertising revenue for the site-owner by ultising screen-real-estate for banner sales.

FELTOM site has already rapidly achieved traffic and statistical data reveals that both “time on site” as well as “bounce rate” data is already out-performing many other local sites.

Bang in the middle...of the community that is!

Greenpeace UK have just launched a new campaign called 'Airplot!'. The campaign has been designed by Airside, a small studio (by UK standards) which is growing big (by our standards) and which fits very well in the whole campaign (name-wise). The Airplot! campaign protests against the extension of Heathrow Airport's third runway. The Greenpeace is much more than a virtual community, such as the many we get to see on Avaaz.org. Greenpeace have actually bought a piece of land bang in the middle of the zone, supporting the village of Sipson, including 700 homes and some businesses. Without getting into the whole debate, the above is a case of:

a) Green: Greenpeace have also been about the environment, but 2009 is expected to be the year of 'Green' thinking

b) Community: The community is joining forces against the government's institution! The community is at the centre of this whole issue

c) Online = Offline: On the latter, I may be taking it to far, but the Airplot! campaign is as present online as physically offline.

It's ROI, not creativity!

I recently had a chat with a friend of mine about creativity in marketing campaigns locally. The argument revolved around the lack of new and creative ideas which agencies and brands put forward. I was about to jump in the boat and add in other restrictions in the local market, mainly tiny budgets and just tiny per se.

But my statistical background makes me want to research almost everything. Even creatives need to sell their work and this does not necessarily mean being less creative or more mainstream, but doing a full job:

Step 1: Recieve campaign brief
Step 2 Brainstorm
Step 3: Draft proposal
Step 4: Sell it!
(but no it doesn't stop here)
Step 5: Execute
(and there's more)
Step 6: Measure, Measure, Measure
Step 7: Go back to step 2 quickly enough for step 2 not to happen.

Pretty straight forward, isn't it?!

ogilvyonrecession.com

Everyone should have a look! No need to say more!

BLAB's brief (for those who are still not convinced)

I stumbled upon this resource through the Ogilvy website, which I was reminded about whilst reading trendwatching's newsletter. Many are speculating about the recession but some simply attempt to extract the positive things about it. Past editions of Advertising Age hinted at a number of products which were conceived during a recession period (for the record, Google is one of them). The Ogilvy dedicated website provides a number of documents which are worth of a BLAB and a close look. Needless to say, Ogilvy also promotes its services through these freebies...but it's only fair & it complements well.