Friday, August 29, 2008

blip.fm review for Marketing magazine

Here's the 'Digital view' piece I wrote for Marketing magazine about 2 weeks ago. They've still not published it so I figure I should at least let it out here before it's too out of date...
You'll notice the usual freewheelin' style was toned down for a more genteel audience ;)

Blip.fm
Have you seen Blip.fm, the ‘Twitter for music’ service?
That’s it in a nutshell: a tool for suggesting songs - and sharing your story about them - within your network. In true micro-blogging style, blip messages use 150 characters or less.
Like an non-stop request show Blip will grabs songs suggested by your friends (dj’s) from music search engines Seeqpod and Skreemr. Likewise your ‘listeners’ can hear to the songs you post.
Whereas Twitter asks ‘what are you doing, right now?’ Blip.fm asks ‘what are you listening to?’
As an added bonus each ‘blip’ contains a link to Amazon’s music store where the song can actually be purchased.
It's not essentially a new idea - streaming via your friends is around with the likes of LastFM and iLike as well as ‘mix-tape’ services like Mixwit and Muxtape – but Blip’s appeal centres around it’s ‘micro’ nature and seamless integration FriendFeed, Twitter, Pownce, and Tumblr.
As the establishment music business keep looking for the magic formula that will bring the multi-million sellers of yesteryear Blip’s creators, US indie ‘label’ Fuzz.com have embraced the fact that the traditional means of distributing music, and their associated business models, are no longer viable.
Blip wins by empowering the artists (any band is free to load their music into the network) and tapping into existing communities of music fans as the distribution channel.
There’s still some rough edges; the slightly spammy nature of invite process, for one and Blip needs a decent database plugged in for the retail model to have a chance. This is potentially the big opportunity for record labels or, indeed, retailers (HMV? Zavvi?).
Blip is browser-bound at the time of writing but the inevitable Adobe Air desktop app and mobile widget will only add to it’s appeal. One to watch…

Thursday, August 28, 2008

warte bis september


Nils is waiting until September.
You can call him on +49 4022 611 161 to find out why, ask and he'll answer in any language.
You can follow on twitter too.
Minimal and cool as.
hat-tip to charles.

Friday, August 22, 2008

link-love

Here's some linkage for some of the other UK based blogs which are keeping me company in the lower reaches of the AdAge Power chart.
A bit of linkety-link could do us all a favour, eh chaps and chapettes?

noticing - marketing
carbon graffiti - email
prwordsmith - pr
engage - seo
red rocket - pr
yet another planning blog - strategy
creative in london - ad creative
25 letters - digital strategy
ginger and proud - pr
offer and acceptance - pr
brand gym - brand
the cowshed - short films

I await your response...

Wednesday, August 20, 2008

life instructions pt2: 'how to be an explorer'


i'm collecting these little 'windows to the soul' now.
this one found via makemarketinghistory original by keri smith

Tuesday, August 19, 2008

war on terror board game

Interesting story around Zavvi, the entertainment megastore, who ordered 5000 copies of a 'controversial' boardgame called 'War on Terror' and then reneged (on the very day of release ) on their agreement with the manufacturers to stock the game - sending the makers onto the verge of going under.

After much to and fro Zavvi agreed to stump up for the order and return the stock so the makers who then decided to give away the surplus copies free outside Zavvi's flagship store on Oxford St, thus turning potential financial ruin into word of mouth PR that money can't buy.

And as 'War on Terror' say 'Why not let the public decide if it's 'unsuitable' for them?'

The full story with all the vendor presentations etc here.

UPDATE:
2,500 copies of the game given away in under 1 hour at lunchtime today, with a line right round into tottenham court road. I managed to wrestle through the crowd to grab this pic of the distribution team with attendant news crews, tv bods.

Thursday, August 14, 2008

made in queens - sound systems for bmx bikes

Here's the trailer for 'Made in Queens' - Kids from Queens, NY in a film about their bmx bike pimpage.
The film recently premiered at Edinburgh film festival.
Follow the story here as it builds.

wisdom of crowds


As the new season is upon us...
'The fans make their views clear after yet another goalkeeping error.'
thanks to Al for this.

Wednesday, August 13, 2008

nietzche marketing




exerpts from a twitter conversation with @zeroinfluencer

zeroinfluencer: Brands are deities not entities, so have to pray for help. Brands need to be nihilists so that people can prey on them.

me: @zeroinfluencer'Brands need to be nihilists' is it a kind of nietzsche marketing?

zeroinfluencer: @EaonP The nietzsche planner "I speak on behalf of the void, formerly known as your customers."

Tuesday, August 12, 2008

the boat goes mobile


You may have noticed the 'mobile' button over there on the right sidebar.
Yes, this blog is now fully mobile, coutesy of mofuse
So to get 'the boat' on the move simply point your phone's browser to http://theboat.mofuse.mobi/

Monday, August 11, 2008

unified list of top 100 novels



As a list geek i was interested to scan this list of top 100 novels, compiled by neil bowers
Here's his methodology which seems fairly credible to me.

heres the top 10, not too many surprises:

1. Nineteen Eighty-Four George Orwell
2. The Great Gatsby F. Scott Fitzgerald
3. The Grapes Of Wrath John Steinbeck
4. The Catcher in the Rye J.D. Salinger
5. Catch-22 Joseph Heller
6. One Hundred Years Of Solitude Gabriel García Márquez
7. Gone with the Wind Margaret Mitchell
8. Ulysses James Joyce
9. On The Road Jack Kerouac
10. The Lord of the Rings J.R.R. Tolkien

The first novel I recognise of recent years pops up at no 40 - Memoirs Of A Geisha by Arthur Golden.

Thursday, August 07, 2008

search online for 'i am'

what's wrong with this picture?



i particularly like the 2nd sponsored link.
'i am a lippi selk bag...i am awesome'

Steven King's 'N' - mobile graphic novel

More widget-ness, as Stephen King's latest novel 'N' is previewed as 25 video webi-isodes, as a pre-lude to what is believed to be 'the first comic-style book adaptation specifically developed and produced for viewing on today's most popular small screen platforms' ie mobile devices.

Ideal accompaniment to the horror of your commute?
full story here

adidas/ultravioletsound free album widgetyness

Hot on the heels of Converse's ultra-cool 'My drive thru' free music download featuring a track by N*E*R*D and Julian Casablancas from the Strokes comes this Adidas Originals 'add value through content' incentive featuring (marginally less cred) dance/pop puppets UltravioletSound.

Via the 'Ultraviolet Sound widget' - which fans are encouraged to place the widget on their myspace, facebooks for maximumum 'viral-ness' - they get access to a free 11 track UltravioletSound album and 30% discount on Adidas Originals clobber (as worn by the band - au naturelement)


Ultraviolet Sound TrueAnthem Music

via greasyguide

Wednesday, August 06, 2008

scenes from an italian restaurant



Carmine's - a small traditional Italian cafe/restaurant in my old home town of Aberdeen - small menu, but brilliant at two things – pizza and pasta.

I first went there about nearly 20 years ago with the now MrsP. After our lunch Carmine told me 'this girl is a-nice, you bring her again, not that other one' (refering to another not so polite girl i had brought in the previous week!)

The reasons we love Carmine's are:

- the tinny cassette player blaring out Opera...
- Carmine does the cooking and serving himself while singing along...
- We were poor so Carmine brought sneaky glasses of wine (it's unlicensed) when we couldn't afford to bring our own in...
- The size of portion you were given was directly proportionate to your own size (huge Calzone for me)...
- Carmine comes over and shouts at you if you don't finish all your pizza...
- Despite being a regular for 10 years I was still called 'Ronnie' even though he knew fine what my real name was...
- Potential customers who only wanted coffee were chased out of the door...
- 'Poison' coffee (sneaky Sambuka!)...
- The cafe was across the road from the main Theatre in Aberdeen. The cast of whatever was on were often in there between performances (the walls were covered in signed photographs)...
- He closed at 7pm - daytime trade only so no bother from drunks etc...

lessons for marketing?

Carmine never advertised, ever - All w-o-m.
The turned-on-it's-head 'customer service' was legendary - people lined up just to get shouted at.
The one-size-fits-one approach to portions!
He never pandered. If you don't like it go to pizza hut.
People love authenticity.
The opposite of great is not 'bad', it's average. Average is invisible.

Anyway, I heard that Carmine is retiring this year. It will be a sad day when the last customer is chased out the door.

apologies for the blantant use of a Billy Joel reference as the title (I'm on a rediscovery of early Billy Joel, it's a phase that will pass, i'm sure).

Saturday, August 02, 2008

MS Word spellcheck...



curious. hat tip to meandmybigmouth

Friday, August 01, 2008

guinness viral



via utalkmarketing

A spokesman said, “Please be assured that Guinness is in no way associated with this video, and has approached YouTube to have it removed'

yeah, right...