Archive for May, 2008
Digital Economies
Posted by Jamie Hutson | Filed under Life, revenue models
A few posts ago I wrote about the online economy and how, in my opinion, it is helping to keep our struggling economy afloat. This morning on Squawk Box, two of the economists were analyzing the durable goods reports from April and they kept referring to ex-autos, ex-transportation, ex-this and that. While I fully understand what they are referring to, I’d love it if they could report, ex-e-commerce or ex-iTunes. And while I realize that the durable goods report probably shouldn’t include virtual hugs sent through facebook, it made me realize how (with the exception of Google) the online success seems to be an afterthought or an also-ran.
Its been two years since ecommerce accounted for more that $100bb in revenue, and in Q1 ‘08 Retail Spending online topped $32.5bb according to comScore. I think its time that the financial world started talking about the online economy the other 10 months of the year (they won’t shut up about it in November and December). I also think there is alot of learning to be done by the major financial institutions regarding the value and potential value of online retail, in a more serious manner. Sure, Amazon stock is up over 200% since May 06 “but thats just another hyper inflated internet stock” (I’ll trade you one Amazon share from June 06 for 10,000 shares of Bear Sterns…)
Just a little rant about the complete lack of focus the financial industry has to whats actually happening. CDOs, LBOs, Off Balance Sheet, Mortgage Backed Securities… How bout we go back to what made this country great, making stuff, selling stuff and buying stuff (as opposed to buying stuff that other people sold and eliminating the process of actually making anything). What was it Gordon Gecko said? - “It’s a zero sum game.” All that fake money is useless with out something to actual back it, wait a minute, isn’t that why they say Amazon isn’t worth anything…
A review of NewsCred
Posted by Jamie Hutson | Filed under Life, Start Ups, Syndication, analytics, sharing applications, social media, web 2.0
After posting about the growing amount of information and its consequential devaluation, I received a chance to use and review a new service - NewsCred - All the world’s credible news, in one place, a new aggregator that allows registered users to vote on articles and choose to “Credit” the author or article, or “Discredit” the author or article. It is actually similar to my iGoogle homepage in that I can select the news sources and blogs that I want to follow, and track the creditability of. They are out to filter the “Signal to Noise” ratio…
One of the really cool things about the service is that they allow anyone to rank the credibility of an article, an author, or a source (newpaper, blog, etc) based on credibility, quality, transparency and accuracy. The voting process is compiled using their “credibility waterfall algorithm” which although, I don’t like the name (is that a technical term), is a neat concept. It allows the creditability ranking of a specific article to affect the creditability ranking of the author, which in turn affects the creditability ranking of the article’s source. Overall this will theoretically serve you the highest quality and credible news from all across the web. It seems to do a pretty good job of that.
One thing I feel the site needs to really become successful is the proliferation of a “digg” style badge. The relatively new plethora of sharing sites across the internet need a way to tout their creditability, and if the NewsCred “Creditability” ranking badge could furnish this demand, then NewsCred could truly have something remarkable on their hands.
The two largest threats I see for the site are one, reaching a critical mass where they have enough users to rank and “credit” articles which I might read or be interested in; and second, someone else doing that sooner. If the site never really catches on, I don’t really see it becoming anything special, that may go without saying, but here is another 2.0 player in need of user volume.
Its definitely a cool site, one worth checking out. They clearly have a good vision of where they want to be, and how they want to do it and I think it can be successful.
Thanks to the guys at NewsCred for working on something that might actually improve the quality of news out there.
A little break, but not from my BB
Posted by Jamie Hutson | Filed under Life, Local Search, Mobile, Mobile Web, advertising, marketing, social media
Last night Ryan Seacrest was on Larry King, and was speaking on a variety of issues, including the usual useless gossip, but he also touched on his BlackBerry Addiction. Larry asked him about the several businesses he runs and how he manages to keep them all together and when he sleeps. His response was basically that he turns his BlackBerry to silent, but wakes up routinely to check it through the night. I was watching this with my girlfriend and she informed me that Ryan’ BlackBerry use sounded an awful lot like mine.
Took a fairly last minute trip to North Carolina to visit my Grandmother, and we crushed the BlackBerry on the way here. Same old stuff for me that I’ve written about before, but it emphasizes how relevant it truly is. AT&T has announced that it will subsidize the release of the 3G iPhone this summer by as much as $200. BlackBerry announced its new “Bold” device (with 3G). Overall, the market for mobile phones and web-rich devices is growing enourmously. If people are able to buy iPhones for 2 or 3 hundred dollars, imagine how many they will sell.
Once everyday people, not just the early adopters and business savvy customers, but everyday Jones is able to access rich, mobile internet - then we will see the explosive growth in mobile advertising. I’m very excited to see what happens in the 4th quarter this year…
Update on the Info Post
Posted by Jamie Hutson | Filed under Life, social media, web 2.0
I swear to you I didn’t read this post from TechCrunch before I wrote the piece about devaluing information and finding a trusted source.
http://www.techcrunch.com/…how-trustworthy-is-your-favorite-blog/
I guess great minds do think alike. However I rest my case per my post below,
Information Down 3 Points Today
Posted by Jamie Hutson | Filed under social media, web 2.0
Thanks to the proliferation of the internet into our lives, Information is losing its value. Alot of this is due to simple economics (supply vs. demand), while the demand for information isn’t necessarily growing any more rapidly, the supply of information and the relative ease with which it is found is making information less valuable. Let me be clear, I think this is a good thing.
The amount of information online is more than all of the information everywhere else, in every other medium combined. People can find what they want in an instant. The problem with all of this is that the trust value of this information is going down with it. Wikipedia, is a great resource (one of my favorite) however it is a collection of different people’s thoughts and explanations on a topic. But it is not a primary source, it is a secondary or often an indirect third source, which brings into question its reliability. Not as a quick reference, but as a solid, money on the line, reference.
The ability for literally anyone to contribute to wikis and blogs, combined with a plethora of search options (Google, Yahoo, etc) and mix in a growing selection of aggregators (digg, mashable, RSS…) and you have so many different options to get your information and news from, it can be hard to handle. Much of it is the same, but today it takes some human filtering to get down and find the exact information you want, from a source you trust.
Today, many people reported that Twitter beat the USGS in reporting the earthquake in China today, so there is clearly huge value in these instant communication services. I see there being a huge future in aggregation or search that can filter out all the noise and select the most relevant and trusted sources to provide us with the information we are seeking.
Connecting Outside of Your Social Network
Posted by Jamie Hutson | Filed under Life, login, social media, web 2.0
Over the past week several of the major players online have announced the opening of their social networks. MySpace’s “Data Availability,” Facebook Connect, and Google’s Friend Connect. While I am slightly skeptical about the immediate implications of these new applications, the long term ramifications are huge. I have been searching for a way to prevent users from creating a new login, a new identity, and the overall hassle of creating another account with in our community. And here I am today with several options before me.
Of course, in typical media war (in this case social media) fashion, everyone is quick to announce their latest and greatest new development, with out actually releasing it.
“We expect that Facebook Connect will be available publicly within the next several weeks.” - Facebook Official Release;
“With Google Friend Connect (see http://www.google.com/friendconnect following this evening’s Campfire One),” - Official Google Release;
these both come a few days after MySpace’s annoucement regarding their new data availability program. The reason for the haste, is fairly obvious, but it is absurd nonetheless. I digress…
The huge potential impact of these new programs brings a solution to many developers’ and publishers’ dilemmas: “how do we reach social users with out disrupting them out of their routines?” Well here it is, now we can allow users to log in using their original passwords, allow them to quickly, easily, and natively bring their friends with them and truly build on the idea of an open social network and create true connectability across websites.
I am extremely excited about this and will have at least one if not all three of these new technologies up and running as soon as they become available and I have a chance to figure them out.
Ahh, the cure for my login addictions (well, maybe not..)
Mobile is Progressing
Posted by Jamie Hutson | Filed under Local Search, Mobile, Mobile Web, advertising, marketing
This week I saw a few examples of how mobile is finally beginning to cross the chasm between innovators and early adopters. Large players are seeing a shift in their advertising dollars, Google announced it was making a major partnership with Sprint, and launched their international portal for iPhones, iMedia Connection came out with a great overview of mobile barcodes, and also yesterday my BlackBerry was with out data for about 4 hours and I kind of freaked out.
The combination of these events, along with specific posts from two of my favorite bloggers (David Berkowitz on privacy and Darren Herman on privacy) led me to the conclusion that we are near the tipping point of doing something great with mobile (working on a very cool new mobile tool for our company).
If you read David and Darren’s posts, you’ll see that they feel strongly about privacy and the prospect of invasion of your personal space on a cell phone. I don’t see mobile marketing being a success if its seen as an invasion; however, mobile marketing becomes a success when marketers are able to reach people as they are in transaction mode. Transaction mode being any of the following: “Lets find a hotel nearby,” “I’m hungry,” “I’m thirsty,” “I really want one of those…” etc. As marketers see the value in reaching users searching for this information, and the mobile device becomes more of a “pocket” notebook computer more dollars will flow across the mobile airwaves.
As the devices transition, the dollars will transition behind them.
I will break the sh*t out of you glass
Posted by Jamie Hutson | Filed under Life, Start Ups
Seth Godin again provided a great post this morning “Breaking the Glass” It got me rather fired up, and excellent analogy and a great example of why I think Seth Godin is a genius.
Break the glass, start doing what you set out to do, stop talking about it and do it. When you are ready to shut up and walk, things start moving, happening and growing. Inside that glass is nothing, just a vapid idea, something that could be, but something that isn’t. Its up to you and no one else to make that idea into something great.
There’s a fine line between fishing and just standing on the shore like an idiot.
Also, sorry for the profane title.
My Top 5 Brands
Posted by Jamie Hutson | Filed under advertising, marketing
I was thinking about how several different brands are really able to reach a large audience, with a long term campaign and I thought I would do a little research and put together a list of the 5 best brands out there today. Based on longevity, current and past campaigns, and their ability to capture significant segments of their markets.
- Nike: The brand that Phil Knight built out of a waffle iron in his garage now controls over 30% of the worlds athletic shoe market and does over $16 billion a year in sales. “Just Do It.” captivates audiences around the world, from Portland to Paris, from Michael Jordan to the World Cup to Tiger Woods, Nike continues to bring powerful campaigns all centered around the same slogan from the 70’s.
- Coca-Cola: The current Coca-Cola logo was originally designed by Frank Mason Robinson in 1885. Today, over 120 years later, the logo still graces the pages, screens and stadiums of locations all across the world. In 1918, Robert Woodruff - Coke’s first President - said he wanted to “ensure that everyone on Earth drank Coca-Cola as their preferred beverage.” Now over 25% of the worlds $250 Billion soft-drink market belongs to Coke.
- Apple: A brand doesn’t have to be centuries old to be great, but after hovering just above obsolete during the 90’s, Steve Jobs returned to bring Apple back to glory. Using an extremely simple advertising campaign, just the product, music and a little graphic design shows how “cool” their products are. The new “Mac vs PC” campaign is brilliantly simple and the iPhone commercials simply show several different features of the product. Did I mention how cool their products are - who doesn’t want an iPod? (Oh man, I forgot to mention the 1-3 connection: Nike + iPod)
- Lexus: I don’t drive a Lexus, and probably never will (I am an Audi guy) but as a marketer I love their brand. They use simple luxury and sheer performance as the key ingredients to all of their campaigns and they always keep them simple. The Pursuit of Perfection (Cadillac recently ripped this right off..). Of course, Toyota is no slouch either.
- Sony: HDNA. My first stereo had to be a Sony. The Sony Walkman, and then the Discman were the iPods of their day. The Bravia TV’s are in most everyone’s top 3 sets. When I was in Video Production in high school, almost everything we used was a Sony product, the cameras, the monitors, the VCRs, the speakers, the mixers, etc. Their current HDNA campaign (with your favorite “all sell anything” football star spokesman Peyton Manning) is brilliant - it gives you many compelling reasons why you should use their products to facilitate your HD experiences. Granted I think Sony should have seen the MP3 craze perhaps a little better than they did considering their dominance in mobile music prior, but they have transitioned through 5 generations of technology and as we begin to transition into a new one, I see Sony having a large presence in what ever future markets develop.
These were just a few of my thoughts on some of the best brands, based on their historical prevalence, current advertising campaigns and over all brand management. I’d love to hear some other brands grabbing your attention.
Google to Drink Yahoo’s Milkshake
Posted by Jamie Hutson | Filed under Search Marketing, advertising, marketing
My take on the Yahoo/Microsoft deal remains the same. It was a very good deal for Microsoft, and I believe ultimately would have been a good thing for consumers. Microsoft needs to come up with some new technologies to keep their brand relevant in the long term, and purchasing all of Yahoo’s was an easy way to do that.
What I am afraid of now is a Google/Yahoo relationship. If Yahoo hands Google the reins to the second largest search engine, then what happens? Microsoft online becomes irrelevant (live.com might as well be now), and as a marketer I know have little choice where to spend my search marketing dollars. If Google is controlling Yahoo’s search budget, that essentially makes them irrelevant as well. So now Google essentially controls the entire search market and they can do whatever they want.
I don’t really know what this means, but it doesn’t sound good to me. Now Jerry Yang says Yahoo wants to focus on display ads. Did he forget that Google just completed its integration with DoubleClick and Tim Armstrong wants “to have advertisers load their entire ad budgets into Google’s system, which would allocate spending across media whether online or offline.” Judging by how well Google has dominated the search market and stolen millions of users from yahoo.com to gmail.com, I would be concerned if I was Yahoo.
Google already controls enough of the internet, and if they control Yahoo’s search advertising they will essentially be drinking Yahoo’s milkshake.
