BLABradio?!

No we're not launching a new radio station using some free online software.

Today I got a surprising phone call from Rodney Vassallo at XFM, who was interested to know more about XFM’s top position in this blog’s interactive highlights of 2007. As you may know BLAB is compiled and read by a number of media and marketing enthusiast. At the end of 2007, we had looked back at the online ideas originating from local brands. In our (humble) opinion, XFM’s Virtual Rockstar topped the list due to it being a first and also generating extensive YouTube views. As said, BLABinteractive is run by enthusiasts and not experts, even though we do our share of research and looking around. You may not agree with our top list of highlights…and please feel free to differ (You may also comment about it if you wish)

2007 Highlights

Below I would like to draw up my list of 2007 highlights of the local interactive and marketing worlds:

#1: Virtual Competitions
In 2007, XFM gave us The Virtual Model and Virtual Rock Star Competitions. The online audience had to vote for their favorite model or band. The winning model got a front page on Pink Magazine whilst the winning rock star got to record her own song, a photoshoot in London (and much more exposure locally). Bands/Artists had to post their home-made video. Some of user-generated content did get some good viewing (ex. Slur - 1,939 views; Drive - 1,249 views; Elisa - 2,141 views)

#2: You - syndrome
On a similar note, Vodafone (Malta) has come up with 'The Face of Vodafone' campaign. In this same year, UK's teen magazine Shout launched a campaign to search for a teen fashion model. The campaign was managed by Miller, the local distributors of Shout magazine.

#3: PM discusses budget online
This was the year in which the Prime Minister (of Malta) discussed politics through an online forum. The budget2008 website has been given a lot of attention in all media. Politics apart, I believe this was a highlight (especially because we did it before The Queen posted her first video on YouTube!). This gets me to the second highlight:

#4: Facebook Malta
The local acknowledgment of online channels also results in a number of important people having their own facebook profile. Apart from the music artists such as Ira, Wintermoods and Salt (my band), a number of MPs also have their own facebook profile. 13,753 have joined the Malta network and that still excludes me and a couple of other lazy people who still plan to join later.

#5: Lamp-post advertising!
In the past 3 years, FacesDisplays introduced bus-shelter advertising in Malta. In 2007, our lamp-posts are also holding promotional banners, similar to the Chogm ones. Brands who have started using the service include Rocs & Inglott, KFC, Burger King & SG Solutions (Apple)

#6: Juice, You and ME
The list of free magazines continued to grow. In March Juice Magazine hit households. The magazine's 160,000 copies are printed in Milan by In-Print. Maltapost also continued to invest in its Direct Marketing services through Mailbox magazine published by 26thFrame. Design magazine ME got its online space at medesignmag.com. Health & Beauty magazine, You, also launched in 2007. The magazine is distributed with The Sunday Times.

#7: 2 Covers, 1 magazine
Tune-in also came up with a first for the local publishing industry. To promote 89.7 Bay's Abel and Elinor, Tune-in published 2 versions of the magazine on the same Sunday. Readers could choose between getting Abel or Elinor on the front page. My household got Elinor!

#8: Shu!
Exit launched Shu! store. The store design was in the creative hands of Chris Briffa Architects. In 2006, Exit and Chris Briffa have also worked together on the 2-22 wine bar, also situated in Valletta.

#9: New / Revamped websites in 2007
I surely did not come across all the local websites which were launched or revamped in 2007, but here are some I know of, and have also blabbed about: GO.com.mt, Timesofmalta.com, Di-ve.com, klikk.com.mt & Kiwilicious.com

#10: I started blogging
And finally, in 2007 we also launched our mini-project which is still at its early stages...and started blabbing on this blog.

Why BLAB anyways?

BLAB is 2 months and 1 week old. During the past weeks we have blabbed about detailed posts such as the new timesofmalta.com, the American Magazine Conference 2007 and The Body Shop Story. Some quick posts included Nokia World 2007, Alexandra Pace's HotCouture photoshoot and di-ve.com.

Blab has also been featured several times in the Viral Video Chart thanks to content related to successful virals. Virals that featured on this blog included the Cadbury Gorillaz Viral, the successful story of Marie-Digby over YouTube, and the ever mostly viewed 'The Evolution of Dance'.

During 2007, Kylie Minogue and Kevin Roberts also featured in our blog. Apart from all this, the usual YouTube, Google and Facebook blabs were almost regular.

Having gone through the past blabs I am personally surprised at the amount of varied content we've posted. Visits to the blog have also been encouraging, and these do not include users who read our blog through flog (the facebook version of BLABinteractive), yet I sometimes do feel my posts are echoing back in a virtual empty space.

And this gets me to the big question...why blog anyway? I discovered blogging some 5 months ago when I got into the working world. Since then I try to read blogs on a regular basis since this helps me a lot in my daily work. I must admit that December has been very busy and this resulted in less blogging. Before the end of 2007, i will draw up a list of reason which make blogging worthwhile. Feel free to add more (even if you're reading this in 2008):

Reason #1: Knowledge Sharing
Good blogs such as GomoNews (my personal favourite) and many others are a knowledge resource at work and good (intimate) content at home. Through blogging I got to share many ideas with friends and discovered many new things.

Reason #2: Content Filtering
There's too much content for us to digest. Blogs filter this content and provide concise and relevant versions of it. Blogs also allow us to back track on past content which we would have not come across.

Reason #3: Personal Content
My blog is a log of most of the interesting content and articles I come across. I was able to go through the posts of the past 2 months thanks to Blogger and its search facility!