December 2008
11 posts
Magazine publishing business models (again)
Here’s today’s weekly email from Car Magazine (probably the most respected of the ‘serious’ monthly automotive titles in the UK).
You can’t miss the Facebook and Twitter logos; hell, they’re bigger than the editor!
The promotion of a Twitter channel in this way is a significant step, and one that is probably ready to be called a twend (ha!). The...
Lean team, leaner times
Woolworth’s marketing team of 4 face the axe. 4! Perhaps if they’d invested a bit more in marketing there’d still be a Woolies. http://poprl.com/8lb
Google to 'ditch neutrality'?
There’s a piece on Brand Republic published yesterday:
“NEW YORK - Google has denied that it is working on a plan to speed up the delivery of its own content, which could end the way that all traffic on the internet is treated the same.
According to a report in the Wall Street Journal Google has approached cable and phone companies in the US with a proposal to create a fast lane...
Quality market research, in a tin
The generous Joanna Burton brought a tin of Quality Street into Harvest’s Soho office this morning.
A couple of hours later, the combined efforts of 40 people had left the tin looking thusly:
Clearly the blue ones (coconut) and the golden brown (toffee) are out of favour with the Harvest Digital demograph. Nestle, I hope you’re paying attention.
Postgate postscript : lessons in creativity
The death a few days ago of Oliver Postgate (obits) has prompted an outpouring of middle-aged nostalgia that I am unable to prevent myself from adding to.
For me, it is not just the TV programmes that have stayed with me from childhood (my favourite is the surreal genius of the Clangers, whose fluty sing-song voices still echo in my memory), I aso loved the books, in particular Noggin the Nog,...
Sark, the movie
When I heard a report about Sark’s first democratic election on BBC Radio 3 news yesterday morning (the move away from feudalism, a single ballot box serving the entire island etc.), the story sounded to me like the scenario for an Ealing comedy, or at least one of those locally based dramas that seem such a integral part of British cinema culture (Local Hero, Whisky Galore!, Calendar Girls...
Kosmix - a 'browse engine'
I tweeted yesterday about Kosmix : Taking a look at http://www.kosmix.com/ - the new Google? Purleeesss. Describes itself as “beta-ish”, which is quite charming.
First result of this was a polite tweet back from a Kosmix staffer; the second time in a day that this has happened to me (the other instance was Yuuguu). Clearly monitoring and responding to Twitter references is now...
the good gym
In a recent tweet I was wondering where it was I had read news of a site that connects runners with the elderly and needy on their running routes.
@markrocky helped me out; the good gym, a brilliantly simple idea that could really work.
Oh, and where I read about it was in a blog post by Andy Hobsbawm of Green Thing, about Social Innovation Camp (‘social technology for social...
Recruitment blues?
The last two or three weeks have seen a flurry of news stories about redundancies in the digital agency world. After years of 30-40% growth this is undoubtedly a chill wind in the industry.
When the going gets tough… the recruitment ‘consultants’ get on the phone, and email, and phone, and etc.
So the volume of email and phone calls from ‘placement’...
Update on adwords trademark infringement story.
Twitter entry 8th Dec 08: Interflora sues M&S and flowers Direct for trademark infringement on adwords; a test case post-Google’s policy change? http://poprl.com/7Yj
Update 9th Dec 08 : Latest from BrandRepublic.com suggest this really could be the test case. I suspect others who have issued legal warnings will wait to see how the Interflora suit plays out.
Tomorrow's Green Economy
Last night I went to an event put on by Tomorrow’s Company at the East India Club in St James’ Square, a Victorian palazzo built as a club for officers of the East India Company in 1849.
The do was held in the Smoking Room, but of course there was no smoke and no East India Company officers for that matter, so Tomorrow was under discussion surrounded by a host of yesterdays.
The...