FRANKthoughts

Let’s take a look at old business model Vs. New business model.

Old model says: let’s not release anything that isn’t perfect, lets keep our IP and lets have restricted access to our operations.

The new model fueled by web 2.0 is different. Let’s live in Beta - optimizing our offering all the time with the help of our users, Let’s release our IP and ask people to contribute and lets have open source software that other developers can use and improve on.

Easier said than done I know. But what if offline businesses can act like facebook (open source) or learn from Kluster?

Facebook phenomenon growth is due to it’s open source policy, empowering thousands of developers to use the facebook platform to build on. Everyone wins. Facebook has content, developers keep IP on their apps.

What if governments change to open source? think about having an online identity that allows people to create, vote or comment on government plans. This will mean each of us has a voice all the time, not only once in four years. It will mean that we can directly influence decision making in real time. It will mean that failed plans like the plan to stop kids looking at porn will be questioned before spending this ridiculous amount of money on ($85 million!!!).

Hmm…Can your business use some open source?

The article can be found here:
http://news.theage.com.au/generation-y-ditches-tv-for-internet/20080226-1uv0.html

The survey was commissioned by MySpace and The Future Lab (UK based analyst) found that a quarter of 18 to 24-year-olds had reduced their television watching in favour of social networking on the web. Although the survey was for the UK market, Hitwise predicts a similar response in the Australian market.

Some key points from the article:

“More time in front of the computer meant 43 per cent had increased the number of emails they sent and received, while 25 per cent increased their use of instant messaging.

According to Hitwise, eight per cent of all visits to internet sites in Australia were to social networks and forums, compared to 7.6 per cent in the UK.

The average time spent on these websites was also similar, with Australia clocking up 18 minutes and 54 seconds, compared to 18 minutes and 57 seconds in the UK.

The two biggest social networking sites in Australia attracted even more attention.”

On the flip side… We’ve seen a Social Network plateau in the last two months for Facebook and MySpace in the last two months. Globally Facebook has seen 5% dip between Dec and Jan. I put it to too many zombies…

Several people have asked for my opinion on Microsoft’s intention to purchase Yahoo (Microhoo) for around $41 billion, as well as WPP’s merging of their of 24/7 Real Media search division with its other search agencies - Outrider, Catalyst and Quisma - to form the world’s largest search agency.

Well, to be ‘Frank’, I say bring it on. Like in most industries, consolidations make sense and it also proves that the Australian marketplace is taking search engine marketing (SEM) seriously. In Australia, Online advertising has cracked the $1 billion mark and is growing rapidly. Mergers and acquisitions are bound to occur when there is demand, or more importantly, perceived demand in the marketplace.

Due to the vast amount of media coverage concerning the potential merger of Microhoo, more and more people are starting to investigate SEM and realising that SEM is both a cost effective and accountable form of online advertising. Even my father, a web novice, has begun asking the right questions. And thats great news if you are in the business of providing SEM solutions.

Will the deal proceed? I have my doubts. For starters, Jerry Yang (founder of Yahoo) is not a great ally of Microsoft and I sense a deal is potentially forming between Yahoo and News Corp…

We’ve just launched a campaign for i-mate. It’s called The Ultimate Escape:

The Ultimate Escape is a five day experiment where five strangers, situated in a Byron Bay villa will be collaborating with their i-mates to promote the concept of working out of the office. During their time in the villa they will keep doing their work, create content and learn what it takes to work remotely. They will also try to create a national profile for working smarter and convince organisations and employees that you can work out of the office and remain highly productive. We are currently looking for applicants to go to the villa for 5 days in the week starting 31 March. We’ll look after all flights, accommodation & catering costs. All you need to do is continue with your normal working week, and enjoy the experience. So, if you think you’re the right person for the job, send us your stuff: apply@theultimateescape.com

That’s right. All you need to do is click on the polar bear and have something worth writing about*. The first post on our blog from a non FRANk staff ** will get Seth Godin’s latest book: Meatball Sundae***. I’m just about to finish reading it and it’s definitely worth a post!

*This is a skill based competition and luck got nothing to do with it. **FRANk employees and family members are not allowed to participate in this promotion. ***Photo for illustration purpose only, real book may or may not have a different cover. Content of book still the same.

Do a search on “Jumper Movie” and this pops up….

Type in your postcode… and Get Showtimes. It’ll bring you a list of all movie times in your area with different cinemas.

Again, Google has delivered a great user experience.

A recent study by Starcom MediaVest called Natural Born Clickers finds “a very small group of consumers who are not representative of the total US online population is accountable for the vast majority of display ad click-through behaviour.”

It also quantifies just 6% of the online population are heavy clickers which accounts for 50% of all display ad clicks.

While many online media companies use click through as an ad negotiation currency, it appears heavy clickers are not the true representatives of the online population.

“Further preliminary Starcom data suggests no correlation between display ad clicks and brand metrics, and show no connection between measured attitude towards a brand and the number of times an ad for that brand was clicked. The research presentation suggests that when digital campaigns have a branding objective, optimizing for high click rates does not necessarily improve campaign performance. “

This makes sense. It is fair to say that agencies have the tendency to fall on CTR and clicks to optimise and report campaign results. Clients demand accountability and ad servers delivers a tonne of insights on clicks. It is important to have objectives set out clearly whether the campaign is a Branding or Performance (Clicks) based exercise. We’ve known clicks do not translate to a successful brand campaign and as shown in the report that there was no connection between measured attitude towards a brand. What would be interesting is the measured brand shift from a banner branding campaign… what is the effective SOV% / importance of contextual relevance / creative cut through for an efficient brand shift?

I took a call only yesterday on the merits of ads on escalator handrails…ho hum. This however starts to get interesting.

On a quick visit to the mens section at Melbourne Airport last week I’ve noticed a new kind of media. It’s called dryer media (c-vision).

It seams that someone had the amazing idea of indulging us with more advertising messages while we dry our hands!

Considering the amount of time we spend around these things every year I’m sure the words “captive audience” convinced someone to invest in this silly idea. What’s next? a screen on the the soap dispenser?

That’s what matters at the end of the day. That’s what every client want – to sell more. That’s what business is all about. That’s the reason branding was invented.
We know that every single bottle of vodka is made with the same ingredients but we still pay more for Grey Goose. T shirts are made in the same factory in China but we still want Nike. It’s the same rubber used to make tyres but we still pay more for Goodyear. Will your story sell? Well, you’ll know if you’ll tell it. Few years ago it was obvious that TV advertising works. Now it doesn’t. We need to try to be different if we want our story to reach our audience. Will these youtube videos sell more blenders? Well, they gave millions of viewers something to talk about and made sure that whenever you think about blenders you’ll think about blendtec.