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