The catalyst of the internet has made all the possible and brands now have the power and potential to engage in real dialog.
A few days ago I was struck by this stunning stat from the BBC News as reported by Robin Hamman, who was commenting on a presentation given by Peter Horrocks, Head of the BBC newsroom.
"BBC News can get 10 - 20,000 emails and messages a day, this still only, Horrocks says, represents around 1% of the audience..."
This suggests that we've only scratched the surface of consumer participation, obviously the BBC being a giant media company, is an extreme case.
It raises some interesting questions.
How can the BBC cope with that volume of participation?
How will it cope when it increases?
How does it or does it respond to the wisdom of the crowd, given that it's only 1% of its audience?
If we shift over from the media to the marketing world, it appears that most marketing departments aren't yet designed and organized to manage and cope with Marketing 2.0, most are still working and structured for a 1.0 world.
The Marketing Department is going to need to change radically, but there are some questions.
How do they make the transition?
When does the "tipping point" occur?
Marketing departments need fundamentally new skill sets, new positions/job titles and they are also going to need some smart technology to assist them.
Given how little bandwidth most departments have these days, it's safe to assume that there are quite a few brands out there who risk damaging their reputations because they simply aren't structured to cope with the new era of conversation and participation.
Posted by Ed Cotton
"iPM is a weekly programme as well as a podcast. The “i” stands for interactive and “i” as in something personal. You can discuss ideas with the production team on this blog and during the course of the week you can view and comment on stories that are being lined up for Saturday's programme.
We’ll source what we do through the best blogs, passionate 'ear catching' online debate as well as comments and recommendations of others. So what ends up on air will be shaped by listeners and bloggers.
Posted by Ed Cotton
The channel will launch some time in 2008.
Clearly, it's an example of TV networks reaching out to ensure their content gets distributed as widely as possible. With certain audiences spending more and more time with video games, the seamless integration of additional content onto gaming platforms makes a great deal of sense, especially given the ability of the consoles to handle HD.
It's probably safe to assume that all kinds of media tie-ups will happen and be integrated into games, especially with the sports franchises sharing highlight reels and the like with their gaming partners.
It also suggests that brands might have the opportunity to generate more interesting content within and with video games than just placing their product in the game.
Posted by Ed Cotton
(1) The show has is blessed with some great writing.
Here's Schama talking about Rothko.
"One morning in the spring of 1970, I went into the Tate Gallery and took a wrong, right turn and there they were, lying in wait. No it wasn't love at first site. Rothko had insisted that the lighting be kept almost pretentiously low. It was like going into the cinema, expectation in the dimness.
Something in there was throbbing steadily, pulsing like the inside of a body part, all crimson and purple. I felt I was being pulled through those black lines to some mysterious place in the universe.
Rothko said his paintings begin an unknown adventure into an unknown space. I wasn't sure where that was and whether I wanted to go. I only know I had no choice and that the destination might not exactly be a picnic, but I got it all wrong that morning in 1970. I thought a visit to the Seagram Paintings would be like a trip to the cemetary of abstraction - all dutiful reverence, a dead end.
Everything Rothko did to these paintings - the column-like forms suggested rather than drawn and the loose stainings - were all meant to make the surface ambiguous, porous, perhaps softly penetrable. A space that might be where we came from or where we will end up."
They're not meant to keep us out, but to embrace us; from an artist whose highest compliment was to call you a human being."
I watched the Turner and Rothko shows and a couple of facts caught my attention.
1. When Turner's painting, "Hannibal Crossing the Alps" was first shown in public, tens of thousands of people stood in line to see the poltical statement being made about Napoleon and France. What art form has that kind of political power today?
2. Mark Rothko toiled for 20 years before he devised a radical new way to move people with art.
"The fact that people break down and cry when confronted with my pictures shows that I can communicate those basic human emotions.. the people who weep before my pictures are having the same religious experience I had when painting them. And if you say you are moved only by their color relationships then you miss the point."
Rothko
Posted by Ed Cotton
Posted by Ed Cotton
1. Build web products that meet audience needs: anticipate needs not yet fully articulated by audiences, then meet them with products that set new standards. (nicked from Google)
2. The very best websites do one thing really, really well: do less, but execute perfectly. (again, nicked from Google, with a tip of the hat to Jason Fried)
3. Do not attempt to do everything yourselves: link to other high-quality sites instead. Your users will thank you. Use other people’s content and tools to enhance your site, and vice versa.
4. Fall forward, fast: make many small bets, iterate wildly, back successes, kill failures, fast.
5. Treat the entire web as a creative canvas: don’t restrict your creativity to your own site.
6. The web is a conversation. Join in: Adopt a relaxed, conversational tone. Admit your mistakes.
7. Any website is only as good as its worst page: Ensure best practice editorial processes are adopted and adhered to.
8. Make sure all your content can be linked to, forever.
9. Remember your granny won’t ever use “Second Life”: She may come online soon, with very different needs from early-adopters.
10. Maximise routes to content: Develop as many aggregations of content about people, places, topics, channels, networks & time as possible. Optimise your site to rank high in Google.
11. Consistent design and navigation needn’t mean one-size-fits-all: Users should always know they’re on one of your websites, even if they all look very different. Most importantly of all, they know they won’t ever get lost.
12. Accessibility is not an optional extra: Sites designed that way from the ground up work better for all users
13. Let people paste your content on the walls of their virtual homes: Encourage users to take nuggets of content away with them, with links back to your site
14. Link to discussions on the web, don’t host them: Only host web-based discussions where there is a clear rationale
15. Personalisation should be unobtrusive, elegant and transparent: After all, it’s your users’ data. Best respect it.
Posted by Ed Cotton