Matt's Marketing Digest

What is Web 3.0?

I have been asked several times recently what Web 3.0 is all about. So here’s an attempt to shed some light on this perplexing topic.

 

The next generation of the World Wide Web, commonly referred to as Web 3.0 or the semantic web, represents a new phase in the web’s development towards more personalised intelligent search and response. Essentially it’s a web in which data is linked to allow more meaningful, actionable insight to be extracted resulting in a Web that understands.

 

In a practical sense this means that when users search, it will understand your location, habits and behaviour and provide tailored search results based on what it knows about you. The more a user searches using Web 3.0, the more it knows. It can track data which then enables it to analyse the user’s previous searches and responses, collate them, and provide more precise answers for the user each time.

 

Although still in its infancy, 2010 will see more emerging technologies which will significantly improve personal search response making your use of the Web more meaningful and personal. This of course has enormous implications for how marketers are able to reach their audience and how companies distribute their information.

 

How does this explanation grab you?

This new Dixons ad speaks volumes…

I like this. A recent ad campaign (M&C Saatchi) that is airing in London is a daring approach by Dixons to pique the British conscious. It’s clever because it hones in our own recognisable customer behaviour, which we might all feel a little guilty about. It goes something like this:

 

Discover you need or want to buy a product; Google it to find out more; visit department store to get more information and help to refine your selection; go home and buy online for less.

 

Sound familiar? And that’s why this is clever, and daring at the same time. It recognises that Dixons is not necessarily the destination store of choice and is not shy in letting us know that it sees that. You may also identify that the fonts have changed to mirror other familiar brand identities (Harrods, Selfridges, John Lewis etc.)

 

The issues that this highlights though are serious. They are 1/ our fast changing behaviour as a result of rapidly changing market dynamics exacerbated by new technologies; and 2/ in being so honest, it is also admitting to competing on price alone rather than other associated brand values such as customer support etc.

 

John Lewis we all know competes on price ‘Never Knowingly Undersold’ but it does it in a way that supports other essential brand values. By admitting to competing on price alone may have an impact on longer term brand value and force the stores into a redundant position.

 

How much do you value your personal details?

Ever wondered what happens with your personal details when you make a purchase online?

 

You’ll already be aware that many corporations and institutions hold loads of information about you. Your name, address, gender, interests, financial details are all part of the online buying process. But have you ever wondered how well those companies protect that data from falling into the wrong hands?

 

A quick bit of research will show how many times the media has reported on lost and stolen data. Tales of laptops left in taxis or on trains, flash USB sticks dropped or stolen, or hard discs lost in the mail litter the media landscape.

 

This is a major issue for corporations and marketers alike. Companies need to do more to ensure that data is protected at all times and marketers need to do more to assure customers that data held on record will be treated with the up-most care.

 

Media Safari has recently started working on a new range of portable hard dives that incorporate not only PIN code access but also hardware encryption. This combines the benefits of ATM style access where the user requires a 5 digit PIN to retrieve the information held on the drive, with a military level of encryption where the data is encrypted and decrypted in real time as it is written to and read from the drive.

 

No matter how you look at it, it is about time companies did more to make incidences of loss or theft a thing of the past. It is only a matter of time before such drives become standard for business and personal use, especially when the costs for these additional benefits are marginally more than a standard external hard drive.

 

How much would you pay to guarantee the confidentiality of your personal details?

 

www.istorage-uk.com 

 

 

Transparency has come of age, but can it go too far?

Autumn is upon us and it’s at times like this that I like to reflect on the big stories of our year. One of the biggest has to be the expenses scandal, and what a clanger that one turned out to be for our political serfs. Without trawling the details of the scandal, which the media did so well, it raised one fundamental point...

 

Out of all the debacle of those months and preposterous expense claims from those politicians who are supposed to exercise the moral authority, I can see one clear benefit where business is concerned. And that relates unequivocally to the issue of transparency and more significantly, its importance in today’s business world.

 

Transparency is a core value and always has been at Media Safari. It is defined not just through the way we interact with clients, the media, suppliers, partners and staff, but also in the way we clearly demonstrate detailed activity in reporting. Clients know, month-in, month-out, where their investment is going and what they are getting for it. I obviously hope then that more businesses will pick up on what is, and should now be considered, a normal practice.

 

It is interesting to note that in this week’s Conservative Party conference, the Shadow Chancellor has taken the lesson of transparency to new heights (in political spheres at least) by announcing big spending cuts that particularly target the public sector, tax credit cuts and a rise in the retirement age. In so doing, he is taking a big political gamble as the electorate suddenly realise that new political mandates, from whatever corner, are going to hurt.

 

Sure, this is honesty but is it a wise strategy to appeal to an already sceptical electorate?

 

Only time will tell…

Digital Britain? Digital donkey more like...

This is interesting. The BBC today reports that the UK ranks 25th out of 66 countries in terms of the quality and reach of its networks.

The research by Cisco also found that “countries such as Latvia and Bulgaria were better prepared than the UK for next generation net applications.”

This is not just about being ready to meet today’s needs, but about being prepared for future needs; and when you consider high speed broadband issues to meet the needs of high definition TV or video on demand, suddenly the term ‘room for improvement’ looks very real.

 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/8282839.stm

Power To The People - Bring on Digital Britain!

I have just been on a speaking tour of the Baltic States with brief stays in Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia. Whilst there are many things about these places that warrant recommendation as desirable travel destinations, there’s one thing that sets them apart, and puts them leagues ahead of the UK. And that's FREE Wi-Fi for everyone, everywhere.

If digital is all about collaboration, connection, relationships and engagement, what better way to embrace the community than by connecting it? In these places, pretty much everywhere you go, you’ll find a free Wi-Fi network – this is a truly networked world. The result is that no matter where you are, or what you’re doing, you can connect and get hold of the information that you need and share it with others. 

I don’t think I ever saw the value in this until I experienced it. Sitting at various destinations in the UK and around the world, it’s one of those things you wish you had, but get used to not having. Then someone comes along and permanently connects your laptop to the World Wide Web, and hey presto, it becomes a living thing with endless, productive potential.

"Digital Britain is about giving the country the tools to succeed and lead the way in the economy of the future,” says our PM. It is about a connected communications infrastructure, greater digital participation and increased distribution of digital content. It has ambitious objectives and wide reaching implications that will benefit everyone.  

So join the debate here http://digitalbritainforum.org.uk/ and let’s get connected!

 

 

 

Email Marketing - What's wrong with 'Batch and Blast'?

Email is giving marketing a bad name.

 

Yes, it’s cheap, yes it can be interactive and targeted. And yes, it can deliver more bottom line results than any other marketing method. When it comes to prospect conversion, increasing customer retention and building loyalty, it is virtually unsurpassable.

 

When you know what you are doing and can be bothered to do it.

 

The trouble is with email is that it is cheap. That’s one of the main reasons marketers use it and the main reason it gets abused. Subscriber boxes are overflowing with permission based email that is irrelevant. Because the use of it doesn’t cost the earth, the same email is blasted to everyone with no time, reason or interest if the customer responds. It’s one frantic campaign after another….sales down, send another… until some poor sod is caught in the unrelenting cross fire…

 

Clearly this no longer performs.

 

Most are now ignoring the emails (research proves it) which deflates the efforts to build the relationship and drive sales. Average open rates have fallen from 19% in 2005 to 13% in 2008. This has led to the much wiser principal of ‘farming,’ back to the good old days of data driven marketing, CRM, relationship marketing, when we had to make difficult decisions because of rising postal costs.

 

This week I am delivering a key note speech on email marketing at Best Marketing’s annual marketing conferences in the Baltic States. But if you’d like to read more, check out a book which provides a good insight into ‘Successful Email Marketing Strategies – From Hunting to Farming’ by Hughes and Sweetser.

 

http://www.best-marketing.com/index.php?lang=est&main_id=83

Media Safari has moved office

This will partly explain my extended absence from updating my blog… it has been a busy few months arranging an office move… But now I’m back after a brief vacation.

 

The fact is that the owners of our last building went into administration so it forced us into an office move that we hadn’t planned on in the imminent future. Gladly though, we found a new office very close to our last place which happens to be much better. Every cloud and all that…

 

So our new details are:

Media Safari

Beehive Yard

Walcot Street

Bath BA1 5BT

+44 (0)1225 471202

Episodes, Webisodes and Mobisodes – Is this the year of the mobile?

Apple recently reached the magic number of 1 billion downloads in just 9 months on its App Store in a campaign called A billion Thanks.

 

Whilst we can’t dispute the magnitude of this number, it does suggest a wider resonation of our increased and almost common place consumption of mobile technology and content.

 

With the launches of new phones like the iPhone and Backberry’s Storm, there seems to be an increased tendency to consume media via a mobile device, as opposed to a fixed one.

 

In an article in The Telegraph’s Technology section on Saturday 18th April, I also read an interesting piece on how in Japan television drama created especially for phones is becoming big business.

 

“They differ to television episodes by being simpler, with short scripts, less movement and closer shooting to make the impact on the phones stronger,” said the CEO of Voltage, a Tokyo-based production company that makes lots of soap operas for download to mobile.

 

These soaps are broken down into 5 minute downloadable edisodes or mobisodes and are targeted at 13-25 yr old women. As Japan is frequently cited as the epicentre of global electronic trends, we should look out to see if this will take off here. You never know.

 

Closer to home, downloadable books and blogging could well be the next big things on mobile. Looking at my own behaviour, I’d say Twitter is perhaps the most likely recipient of my mobile tappings, a form of micro-blogging that is a very close relation to SMS. With 160 characters it is short but has the capacity to talk to a much bigger audience… handy!

 

Does online advertising work?

A recent quote from an individual at online business at Microsoft got me thinking…

 

“Digital today is the context for all consumer behaviour; our presence in this environment doesn’t define us because it’s increasingly assumed. For the first time in advertising’s history, those practising it can no longer buy an audience; instead they have to find ways to connect to individuals.”

Yusuf Mehdi, Senior Vice President, Online Audience Business, Microsoft

(Source Contagiousmagazine.com 17/03/09)

 

The idea of buying an audience defined largely by OTS and OTH is without doubt becoming more difficult. A multitude of reasons has contributed to the weakening of the traditional (offline) marketing model where a big budget would effectively drown out competitor noise leading to market domination.

 

But traditional media is still totally valid for broad reach and generating awareness. However, the online or digital medium is about creating depth of understanding, generating deeper engagement with end users where organisations can seek to leverage the digital toolset to connect and build meaningful relationships.

 

Which leads to the question, does online advertising work?

 

Well the latest article on Adotas seems to suggest it does. “Forrester predicts interactive online advertising, display, email, mobile, search, and social media, will experience a 17 percent compound annual growth rate, totaling almost $55 billion in spending over the next seven years.” If this prediction is to be believed online advertising spend will dramatically increase but this doesn’t necessarily mean it will work…

 

I believe the answer lies in two main areas: Digital toolset mapping and creative execution.

 

Simply using targeted interactive advertising on its own is missing the fundamental benefits of the digital environment. Traditional media needs to seamlessly link with its digital counterpart, where online ads seek to reinforce the message and reveal a new part of the story. The online ads will then link with the other tools in the digital toolset creating a homogenous journey from unawareness to awareness, awareness to comprehension and so on. 

 

Experience tells me that online ads in isolation won’t instantly translate into sales (awareness to purchase in one step) and will leave marketers wondering what went wrong. But weaving online ads into a creative and engaging journey that links the traditional and digital landscapes together will lead to improved results.