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I’ve been thinking about the major structural changes occuring in society at present and come up with the key trends as I see them:

• Environmental change (increasing demand for environmentally friendly products and green energy). “Local” is likley to become increasingly important in all aspects
• Our population is ageing with the new old being more mobile, tech literate, higher disposable income and leisure time
• Bits and things are becoming more and more connected through ‘mobile’ technology, and this includes computers talking to computers
• Non-linear entertainment consumption is the future (linear scheduling is dead)
• Genetics – a little bit outside of my sphere of knowledge but expect develoments in this area will have significant impact on our lives

I’ve also been thinking about hype in the tehcnology sector and just thought ‘businesses that make money don’t burst in a bubble’ which is a mantra I’m going to adopt.

In addition to my post about collecting a list of products and services that sell themselves, thought I should recognise some ‘campaigns’ that have spread virally. Again just for reference.

• 2006 – Threshers 40%-off discount – essentially a text email with a print and redeem. Accoridng to Kontraband head ‘What they did really well was to totally manipulate the press. All year, Threshers is 33% off, so it was only an extra 7%. Then they said it had got out of hand, and was only meant for friends and family, and that they had to put out a profit warning. Then they got more press at the end of the campaign about how successful it had been. They really worked the media and that won’t have cost anything.
  When you show that to agencies they just don’t want to know. But it was massively successful. It didn’t engage anyone with the brand. It was just about cheap booze, and that Threshers is a place for cheap booze’
• Napster ’30 secs is not enough’ - one of the biggest viral downloads of 2005.
• Felix the Desk top pet – adorable desk top play thing which acheived phenomenal downloads and brand love!
  

Posted by Rory Sutherland 09/05/2007

One of the recent threads on the entertaining and illuminating Rory Sutherland blog.

“I agree. Interestingly there has never been DRM on jokes, has there? (If there were, the chap who invented the lightbulb joke would be living in Heffneresque splendour on the royalties). No, it’s always been assumed that jokes are shared around for free, just as songs are today and films will be tomorrow. Meanwhile comedians and gag-writers haven’t endlessly whinged about this or demanded compensation – they’ve simply found thousands of other ways to make humour pay”

http://www.brandrepublic.com/blogs/showpost/796a832a-6c2f-47bb-8f8e-0b32e9915a6d/

Slightly more business post than recent ones, and I hate the buzzword Freemium but just seen some stats from US conference on conversion of free content to premium /paid subscriptions – averaging about 3% which is about what I've seen at various organisations.
"The companies presenting at DealMaker Forum are seeing 1.5% to 5%, with most of them averaging around 3%. Doesn't sound like much but they are reaching tens of thousands of users…sometimes well over 100,000.Do the math. 100,000 free users convert to 3,000 paid users. They pay between $10 to $50 per user per month. Lets use $25 as an average. That is $75K a month or $900K per year" Full article

ridiculous but why not
From ebay

“ThoughtVertising – A Global Advertising First
For the first time in advertising history, brand owners are offered the opportunity to buy meda space within someone’s mind.
“How?” I will think of your brand every hour,on the hour for a period of a week
“Ridiculous!” How do I know you’re really going to do it?”

1. I am an industry professional with 10 years of experience with Cunning Communications, at the forefront of advertising innovation. As a result,I maintain an honest approach to business.Business, as in life, ultimately relies on trust and I believe I have earned that trust.

2. I’m genuinely interested to know what will happen as a result of such a regimented exposure to a brand idea.It’s a kind of meditation based on a brand and its values.I think this experiment may help me to gain further insights into brands, brand communication and the workings of their personalities

3. I will if requested,undergo a lie-detector test to validate my claim

ROI
The media coverage of this unique advertising event is expected to be worth more than the initial investment.

“You Would Say That!”
True.However, I’m basing the above statement on 10 years of experience developing brand stories the media like to pick up on,including the highly successful ‘VoiceVertising” project (see case study below). Based on my experiences,I feel confident ThoughtVertising will generate media and public interest worth more than the bid price.

Case Study
In 2005 I created the concept of ‘VoiceVertising’ – literally selling my voice on eBay.For every hour of the day for a week I promised to shout the brand name of the winning bidder.I created the idea as a joke to lampoon unusual body media buying stunts such as Forehead ads,tattoo ads,pregnant belly ads and even backside ads.After one day on eBay Cadbury Adams won the bid for their brand Halls Fruit Breezers. With the help of PR firm La Force Stevens, the spectacle of of a daft English bloke shouting “Halls Fruit Breezers” all over NYC was broadcast to 115 Million potential customers via the Fox News Channel, Chicago Sun Times, CNN.com and many, many other national and international news outlets (audit available on request).The overall media coverage was worth considerably more than the cost of the project.Of course, there are no guarantees in PR but I believe a smart, progressive marketer will see the potential of the ThoughtVertising concept
OK I get it! What’s the next step?”

Bid to sponsor ThoughtVertising
Successful bidder to provide me with the brand message, logo or product.
Every hour on the hour for an entire week I think about your brand regardless of the social situation or circumstance.
The project is recorded and released to the media – a story that is sure to get people talking and thinking about your brand

ThoughtVertising includes:

• Full sponsorship of my brainwaves for a week
• 1 x day media work (photo calls and interviews)
• Experience Report
• A place in advertising history

69% of recipients view emails in the preview pane

50% of recipients automatically block images

So?

Only the top 2-4 inches of your email are viewable in the preview pane

If your main offer is in an image and it’s blocked – there is nothing to click

What is SL ? Useful video overview http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b72CvvMuD6Q&mode=related&search=

How many people in SL? Comscore figures from May 2-7 suggest 72K for UK, 1.3m worldwide logged in during March 2007.
Full press release http://www.comscore.com/press/release.asp?press=1425

U2 Concert http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mro9Qzv–k8&mode=related&search=

Interesting to see Xfm (GCap owned) just announced it’s making a 6 hour segment of it’s schedule DJ free – instead handing over control of it’s schedule to the listeners who can request tracks via text email and on their web site.
Interesting move, quite shrewd really since they’ll make $s off the back of the requests, assuming enough listeners bother to interact?
As a listener…I wished they had dropped the tedious ads and g-d awful station promos – at least the DJs offer some value to the listener.
The full scoop at MediaGuardian

The good old post office is not known as a trail blazer in the digital age but I thought this new offerring is pretty cool. It is effectively allows companies to circumvent the need to send cheques and so has a range of uses including cash-back/ promotional based.
“Post Office payout™ allows companies to distribute promotional incentives, refunds and cash payments at a fraction of the cost of issuing cheques.  Using the latest barcode technology, companies simply send a reference code by text, email or post which customers take to any of the UK’s 14,000 Post Office™ branches to receive an instant cash payment”
See the post office site for details
…just a shame that the PO is also in the process of closing down so many post offices.

You just gotta laugh at the latest installment from WCRS. Just wonderful.
Although Maureen is still the best service.