A Nod to Gaping Void

OK - I've been really bad in updating the blog over the past month. I wish I could say that my new years resolution was to update the blog more frequently but let's be honest, I'll get it done when time permits.

I wanted to draw your attention to an article over on Gaping Void called "why the "social object" is the future of marketing". I suggest you read it if you're in any doubt as to why the face of media is changing. As always, Hugh is on the ball with his comments - i love the quote "The bad news is, most products are boring. The good news is, most word-of-mouth is boring".

The one thing that I think Hugh has missed is the economics of advertising - in other words, one thread of the argument is that media became too expensive to execute whereas the opposite should be (and probably is) happening. Media costs are falling - especially in real terms. Furthermore production costs (the real barrier to entry) can be almost negligible. With Google on the horizon for mass media, the barriers to entry are falling further and further so that "mom and pop" shops aren't that far away from being able to advertise on TV or in National Press titles (but only the local edition).

London startupweekend creates alittlebitbetter.co.uk

This weekend, I met up with a load of really interesting people from bloggers through to techies and marketing folk to launch a new business called alittlebitbetter.co.uk. This was a startupweekend event of which more later.

Alittlebitbetter.co.uk is a new ethically focused consumer reviews website for the UK market. We’re trying to combine the trend for User Generated Content with the rise in consumer consciousness that has started to grow in recent times.

As the blurb says:
“At alittlebitbetter.co.uk we don't pretend to be perfect – we occasionally leave lights on when we don't need to, buy fruit out of season, and nudge the thermostat up for a 'duvet day'. But we do try to be a little bit better wherever we can.“

Alittlebitbetter.co.uk was born out of 1 weekends work by a team who hadn’t met until about 7pm on Friday night. The whole idea was that a load of diverse people would get together an launch a new business in under 51 hours with no prior plans or collaboration. It’s a really cool idea and I urge anyone out there to go along and take part in future events (see http://www.startupweekend.com/ for details of future events).

Did we succeed? The next few weeks will establish whether the business itself is viable and whether it will survive. However the principle has been proved – bring some smart people together then led the event take off an anything is possible.

All the best to those that took part and watch this space for future developments!
John

oh iPe!

iPhone UK launch wasn’t the marketing triumph many expected. Further thoughts to come but let me point you to a few interesting articles:

• iPhone Crowds? Don’t believe the hype! – pics of the stores on launch day – not exactly packed are they


• Tumbleweeds outnumber punters, as iPhone's First Night flops - http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/11/11/iphone_uk_flop/ - Summary from the ever great Register


• Confession: In London we had to hire actors to form an iPhone queue outside our store – From the Fake Steve Jobs!

From personal experience, there's certainly no supply side issues with plenty of stock available but is this actually a good thing for leading edge technology? Is categorising the iPhone as "leading edge" even appropriate?

For all the bad press (and there has been plenty), I'd trade in my p990 in a heartbeat for one if it was financially viable.

Update on iPE - phone not yet on sale

OK – my mistake – the shops don’t open until 6pm for iPhone purchases. Makes me look like an idiot!

iPE (hype) in London

iPhone arrives in the UK today and the question is what happened to the mass hysteria?

I took the attached grainy photo (on my useless SonyEricsson P990i) as I walked past. Given the coverage of the original launch in the US and the Apple PR machine getting a head start, I expected a little bit more interest that this. It’s left me thinking that Apple got it a little wrong with the marketing of this baby. Where was the crowd!!!


I’m really busy today with some urgent work but look out for my post on what Apple could learn from Nintendo about launching better products into the tech market.