The paradox of insular language
2 years ago
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
Monday, March 22, 2010
Monday, March 15, 2010
PODCAST: Geolocation Services In Social Media
Chat this morning with Ed Swift on geolocation services in social media applications.
Discusses FourSquare,Gowalla, Twitter and Facebook trends and discusses privacy and issues for New Zealand users.
Friday, March 12, 2010
Brooker: Loser Generated Content
Charlie Brooker is a legend. Pretend crowdsouring is lame. I also like use of the term 'dickshoe'.
TV advertising used to work like this: you sat on your sofa while creatives were paid to throw a bucket of shit in your face. Today you're expected to sit on the bucket, fill it with your own shit, and tip it over your head while filming yourself on your mobile. Then you upload the video to the creatives. You do the work; they still get paid.Hail the rise of "loser-generated content"; commercials assembled from footage shot by members of the public coaxed into participating with the promise of TV glory. The advantages to the advertiser are obvious: it saves cash and makes your advert feel like part of some warm, communal celebration rather than the 30-second helping of underlit YouTube dog piss it is.
Witness the current Oxo Factor campaign. According to the website: "Has your Family got the OXO Factor? It's 2009. There's no such thing as 'the OXO Family' any more. We're all OXO Families! That's why we asked you to film your family performing the script for our new TV ad, for the chance to see yourselves on TV, alongside some of Britain's other brilliant families." Or "other insufferable arseholes", depending on your point of view.
End result: a bunch of wacky-doo show-offs titting around in their kitchens, each reciting the same script, which they're not allowed to deviate from. They can perform it "ironically", and indeed they all do, which somehow only makes it more horrible still: the Oxo family of 2009 may display faint traces of corporate-approved subversion, provided they adhere to the corporate-approved screenplay. Lynda Bellingham's fictional family of yore might've been insipid, but at least they weren't willing participants in a macabre dystopian dumb-show.
Phone ads are worse. Everybody's "brightdancing" according to The X Factor break bumpers. "Brightdancing" consists of shooting a video of yourself waving your mobile around while being filmed by a Talk Talk website gizmo which turns the glare from your mobile's screen into a ribbon of light. It's less creative than choosing which colour iPod you want for Christmas. "Brightdancing". Jesus.
Then there's Josh, the simpering middle-class mop who's apparently "forming a supergroup" for T-Mobile. According to the official story, Josh was strolling down the street one day when a T-Mobile film crew asked him what he'd do if he had free texts for life. Rather than pointing out that "free texts for life" means dick-all in a world containing the internet, Josh burbled something about forming a band. A few weeks later and gosh oh crikey that's precisely what's happening! And we're all invited! Hey everyone! Join Josh's Band!
As well as TV spots recounting the irritating story of Josh and his "volunteers" (Yikes! They're busking in an open-top London bus! Bonkers!), there are YouTube videos of Josh's utterly spontaneous and not-at-all-stage-managed musical quest. The group has its own song, which you're encouraged to perform and upload yourself, hastening humankind's slow cultural death in the process. The recurring melody sounds suspiciously like a seven-note ringtone, while the lyrics speak vaguely inclusion and connectivity – y'know, the sort of thing they guff on about in mobile phone ads. The third line is "I call up all of my friends". Why call anyone? You've got free texts for life, you prick.
It's so clumsily contrived it wouldn't fool a hen, yet we're meant to welcome this "supergroup" as an authentic grassroots musical phenomenon. On MySpace, Josh (or whoever's controlling him) claims, "It's a shame so many cynics think this band is completely manufactured."
So it's a genuine people's movement, then? And this band doesn't contain any paid-for session musicians? And that song wasn't written by professional tunesmiths-for-hire? And the lyrics weren't penned by some dickshoe at Saatchi & Saatchi? Hmm. Piss off, T-Mobile. Stop trying to "crowdsource". You're embarrassing yourselves. Scram. And empty that bucket on your way out.
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
Friday, March 5, 2010
Gattung & Chicks on Boards
Riding the XT media storm, former Telecom CEO Theresa Gattung has hit the publicity 'go' button before the release of her book 'Bird On A Wire' next week.
At a time when I was at business school and wobbling out into the workforce, having a woman at the helm of the biggest company in New Zealand made a huge difference. The gender split was roughly 50:50 in our lectures and we girls never once thought there was such a think as inequality in the workplace. Theresa was a shining light of "you do the work, you get the job." Ann Sherry at the helm of Westpac, Dame Sian Elias as Chief Justice and Helen Clark as Prime Minister backed up this theory, followed by Gattung ranking at 23rd most powerful women in the world by Fortune in 2006.
So what's happened?
Archival analysis indicated that of a total of 1366 corporate directors, women constituted 88 (6.44%) directorships. Women held 64 non-executive (4.69% of total directorships), 23 executive (1.68% of total directorships) and one alternate directorship. The findings indicated that there were only five women CEOs and only five out of a total of 240 New Zealand corporate boards achieved gender equality. Women on NZ Coporate Boards 2008
1.68% of executive directorships! So when Gattung comes out criticising the low-level of scrutiny the current CEO is receiving and addresses the issue of pay parity, there's a little more to it than 'sour grapes'. I don't blindly endorse leaders because I have the same plumbing as them and I certainly think Gattung made errors in the top seat. I do think she has unique experience and hasn't received the credit she has deserved. There are challenges that are unique to women, it's looking at the figures and realising that things are out of whack. Good work Theresa.
Monday, March 1, 2010
Relevance, Interactivity & Accountability
Christopher Vollmer wrote in the journal Strategy+Business.
“Advertising has evolved from an interruption—grabbing attention for a product or brand—into an experience, an application, a service that the consumer actually wants. This new marketing model doesn’t shout; it listens and learns. And relevance, interactivity, and accountability are its essential ingredients.”
You can't push campaign through social communication tools. People will tune out.
I know you can't make money that way under your existing structures. Both client and agency are struggling with this at the moment but struggle with it you must.
You need to change your business model. There's no question about that. It's just a matter of being prepared to upskill yourself and apply the logic of the fragmented media reality to your business or organisation.
Madison Avenue legend Rosser Reeves (pictured) publicly boasted how one client spent $86,400,000 over the course of 10 years “on one piece of my copy.”
Those days are over.
Further reading: Is Marketing a Strategic Resource or a Procured Commodity?
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