This is a great new viral from Cutwater in the US for Rayban. Is a really sweet little idea that makes you feel that nice warm happy feeling that in my opinion all great advertising should have and which leads to the sharing thing (the Holy Grail) . . .

Yahoo! has continued to do exactly what got it in this mess in the first place. It has played it boring and hired a CEO, in Carol Bartz, who is a safe pair of hands for a publicly quoted company, but has little or no Web 2.0 or advertising experience – apparently these are important to Yahoo!.

Please someone get me a rocket scientist. No seriously, as apparently while it isn’t rocket science you DO actually need a rocket scientist to make these decisions (I’m guessing he can just walk around the building shouting “MAXIMUM THRUST” like a lot).

I’m clearly not the only one thinking this as investor reaction caused the stock to drop as low as $11.78 before climbing back to $12.1. Needless to remind everyone last year it was trading at around $22 before a year of losing ground.

Prior to Yahoo! Bartz spent 14 years at Autodesk (and was on the boards of Intel and Cisco) and clearly has lots of executive and technology experience running a publicly quoted company. What do you mean you are not familiar with the computer-aided design software firm? To be fair she did increase revenues from $300m to $1.5bn and the company’s share price increased nearly ten-fold. Good luck with that at Yahoo!.

Her appointment looks like a total compromise as headhunter firm Heidrick & Struggles, which led the CEO search, has said that Yahoo! would also be looking for a strong No. 2 with more internet and product experience. Why not put someone like that in charge of the company in the first place? Just a thought.

There were a number of candidates out there who could have taken the Yahoo! job, but in the end the once grand search firm seems to have had trouble attracting people to the job – because it is really a tough sell.

One of those people in minor contention, but who really wanted the job was Yahoo! president Sue Decker who has resigned. She was very closely associated with Jerry Yang and look how that worked out. It was probably a smart choice not to give her the job.

Reports have suggested that the Yahoo! board got a lot more knock backs from outside execs than expected for the CEO job because of the challenges and sinking moral. Runners and riders are thought to have included former Yahoo! chief operating officer Dan Rosenweig, who currently runs media private equity firm Quadrangle; Meg Whitman, long-time Ebay CEO; Tim Armstrong, Google’s North American head of sales; News Corp’s COO Peter Chernin; and current Juniper Networks executive Kevin Johnson. Former AOL chief Jonathan Miller was also linked.

All that seems clear is that Yahoo! will not remain in its current form for much longer. Totally convinced of that. It has lost all initiative and is falling further behind as we type.

I know this because no one talks about it or uses it. The only time it is talked about is that time that Microsoft tried to buy it? Oh and there was that Google deal. Those were the days. That could have been a transformational deal, but now that Window has been firmly shut and it is not a door opening. It looks more like a whole. Hole.

Bartz will no doubt safely steer Yahoo! as a highly competent executive, but it is a firm that desperately needed to be more than safely steered.

Normal
0

Previously on this blog, I wrote about the prevailing
culture of meanness that is witnessed in the entertainment world, including the unfortunate incident of Russell
Brand and Jonathan Ross in the Sachsgate affair. Based on comments left by
readers, this issue strikes a passionate cord among many, and I’d like to point
out an example of how kindness can work for entertainment content as opposed to
the cruelty we see so often in television programming.

Flip over to Channel 4 for Gok Wan’s How to Look Good Naked
show and you’ll find
an uplifting host who flatters his participants and transforms not just the way
they look, but how they feel about themselves both inside and out. Gok’s pep
talks about body image and non-stop fashion tips for women of all sizes show
that being nice to people, rather than cutting them down for all the world to
view, can work in generating viewers and fans. Proof of his success happens
every episode when he gets women to bravely strip down to their bare essence
for national tele.

I love what Gok has got to offer and with the new year
unfolding, and the annual mad dash to diet upon us, taking tips from him to
love what we’ve already got is a great way to kick things off in 2009.

Perhaps other big media meanies, like Simon Cowell, Gordan
Ramsay and Sir Alan Sugar, should take a lesson in kindness and tune into Gok
Wan’s weekly show. As for Russell Brand and Jonathan Ross they’ve surely
learned a taste lesson, but could brush up on how to present kinder content by
watching Gok work it.

Watching nice guy Gok,

-Lisa

The online TV wars in the US just got a little more interesting. Seemingly out of leftfield, CBS has announced a large content deal with MGM, PBS, Showtime, Sony and Endemol USA to broadcast popular television shows on its TV.com website.

The new service should at least take a bite out of emerging market force Hulu, the NBC/Fox joint venture that has proven to be exceptionally popular stateside since its launch last March.

CBS quietly acquired the jackpot-of-a-domain-name TV.com during its purchase of CNET last year and with it, looks to finally secure a firm foothold in its mission to become a go-to destination of third-party content.

It had previously dipped its toes in the world of online video through unsuccessful partnerships with AOL (duh) and Beebo.

The domain itself, TV.com has had a turbulent past and is practically ancient by internet standards. In the mid-90s it served as platform for CNET’s tech-related TV shows, later becoming an online TV guide, and most recently, an online video streaming site, with a bulk of its content actually coming from Hulu.

Although there are multitudes of online video websites, Hulu has steadily gained popularity through its social media features, which allows users to create video clips to use in other online communities.

Word is, CBS will try to ape Hulu’s success, and who knows, they could be on to something.

So far they have a decent range of classic American TV shows lined up such as ‘The Addams Family’ and ‘Charlie’s Angels’ to new programmes like ‘Dexter’ and ‘CSI’.

Will it work? Web-surfers will have the final say. As far as I know, CBS’ average demographic is much older than other US broadcasters and in today’s day and age, nostalgia is rather fleeting.

TV.com’s success will hinge on CBS’ ability to engage its viewers to participate in the online community aspect, which will be no easy task thanks to the sickeningly over-saturation of social networks parading around the internet.

Panasonic’s influencer campaign at CES

By Robin Grant // 12 January, 2009 – 2:39 pm // No comments

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Brian Morrissey in Adweek covers the latest influencer campaign from Panasonic:

Among the hundreds of journalists at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas this week there are five people producing reams of copy, photos and video about the show, new product demos and press conferences. Unlike the reporters, though, they are popular bloggers in Las Vegas courtesy of Panasonic.

The Panasonic program is one of several undertaken by brands carving out a new take on the old notion of advertorial. Rather than relying on magazines, they are contracting with influential bloggers who bring with them their own powerful distribution networks. Rather than a long-form narrative, content is fit for the Web via blog posts, Twitter updates and YouTube videos. And the key differentiator: instead of dictating the content to lead to a sale, brands typically keep their distance to maintain credibility.

Panasonic wanted to build cachet among Internet influencers for its array of tech products. As part of its “Living in High Definition” push, Crayon [a social media agency] recruited five bloggers to travel to CES on Panasonic’s dime. Panasonic footed the bill for their travel and passes to the event while also loaning them digital video and still cameras. The bloggers, which include popular Internet figures Chris Brogan and Steve Garfield, will also meet with Panasonic executives and preview products.

It’s good to see the sort of work we’re doing getting mainstream coverage in Adweek and that savvy brands like Panasonic understand the competitive advantage campaigns like this can bring.

However, Brian is wrong to view these sort of campaigns as ‘advertorial’ (and in the same article bracket them with ‘pay per post’ type campaigns) – what Panasonic have done (and we do with our influencer campaigns and advocacy programmes) is generate genuine, emotive and far-reaching Word of Mouth, which is substantively different to crude advertorial (or even dispassionate editorial) copy.

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We’re on a Digital Mission to SXSWi

By Nathan McDonald // 9 January, 2009 – 11:43 am // No comments

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We’re off to Texas! Along with 34 other innovative UK companies, We Are Social is really proud to be selected from over 100 entries as part of the Digital Mission to the SXSWi Conference in Austin, Texas.

As Mike Butcher (also one of the judges) puts it in Techcrunch, the Digital Mission is “a kind of trade mission, but with more sex appeal” to SXSWi, “now a byword for emerging media.”

Chinwag are organising the Digital Mission for UK Trade & Investment, with the support of sponsors Sun Startup Essentials, Winston & Strawn, and Core Objects. Thanks to them, and the judges: Mike Butcher, Techcrunch UK Editor; Herb Kim, Codeworks CEO; and Sarbjit Bakhshi, Head of Information & Technology Group, UKTI.

It’s great news to start the year with – we’re already looking forward to heading to SXSWi and making the most of this great opportunity. See y’all in Texas!

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Goodbye Men, Hello ladies

By Belinda Parmar // 9 January, 2009 – 9:10 am // 8 Comments

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 Jerry yang, Yahoo’s ex chief exec announced that the advertising industry was facing the toughest downturn in decades. The age of extravagance is gone. The age of the hangover is here.
No more big marketing budgets with money to trial and test cool ideas.
Its about ROI. Its about bold, strong brands having a clear
positioning. Tough times need solid, focused leadership, a lesson that
Woolworths learnt the hard way.

 

Napoleon declared the essence of strategy is sacrifice. Never has this been more true than in the current climate. And the sacrifice should be allocating marketing spend to men- a well saturated market. Lad’s mags are already pregnant with tech-brands competing for their attention. Women are the financial opportunity and Jupiter estimate marketers are missing out on £0.5billion by not marketing to women.

 

Out of every 10 gadgets, 4 are bought by women. And no before you
ask we are not talking about fridges and washing machines. More women
than men play games between the age of 24-35 than men now And we are
not just talking the Sims. World of Warcraft now has 50% female players.

 

The research I conducted with Jupiter highlighted (now Forrester),
ownership is on a par with men in most categories. Couple that with the
fastest growing segment on social networks is married women with
children. And according to an N-vision
survey, December 2008, approx 40% of women are transacting on the
Internet (ie spending money rather than just using the Internet for
communication, information and entertainment) compared to 30% of men.
Hence, Women are no longer a niche audience – they are the
budget-holders and drivers of growth.

The editor of marie claire is right when she says:

 

“When it comes to tech brands and women, technology companies are in the same place the cars industry was 20 years ago.”

 

With the exception of Nintendo and it’s Wii, Apple, no other brand is talking the female language. I agree with Hilary Chilura when she says:

 

“Like nervous teenage boys at a junior high-school dance, tech marketers haven’t figured out how to talk to women”.

 

Ask any family who was in charge of buying the Christmas gifts, and
you’ll find out its women not men. Women are not only buying technology
for themselves, but as the Chief Household Officer, are buying
for kids, husband, gran and friends. Women are in charge of the house,
but more importantly are in charge of the living room (see Battle of the Living Room) where many of the
technology lives: PVR, console, HD TV…. In my house, its my husband
who lives in ‘his’ world but its me who lives in the ‘real’ world. I am
deciding what we should cut back on, how much we can save and what we
will buy when it comes to technology.

 

If tech brands want to be successful, they should focus on women at
the expense of men. Women are no longer ‘the Second Sex. ‘ Rather the
most profitable sex.

Um, Crispin Porter, do you want fries with that Cyber Lion?

By candace kuss // 9 January, 2009 – 12:15 am // 4 Comments

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No doubt in my mind that another slew of awards will follow the launch of the most on brand, site specific app I’ve seen (probably ever). Whopper Sacrifice is such a fun, fresh concept it makes me want to go actually buy a burger in tribute.

“What would you do for a free WHOPPPER? Now is the time to put your fair-weather web friendships to the test. Install WHOPPER Sacrifice on your Facebook profile, and we’ll reward you with a free flame-broiled WHOPPER when you sacrifice 10 of your friends.”

As one of the 736 friends of the agency’s popular interactive ECD, I fully expect to be axed. Jeff, just remember we knew each other way back when online advertising was all about optimizing gifs. This app is so clearly spot on and wicked funny that it is even getting what I’d call *real* PR, meaning mass coverage well beyond the expected marketing rags and ranty ad blogs. Way to make your client famous. This story’s everywhere, from the HuffPost to the NY Daily News.

Plus, crossposted on Brand Street.

Okay amigos, delete me on Facebook, but please follow me on twitter