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There was an interesting story yesterday about BBC's Top Gear teaming up with Polyphony, the creations of the racing video game Gran Turismo. The deal involves Top Gear providing program content for the new Gran Turismo channel (I assume this is part of an extended TV network that Sony Playstation is building) and adding the show's unique test track to the Gran Turismo video game.

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 In December this year, Sony will launch a television set using an OLED screen like the one featured in this video. Just when we thought we had seen the flatest screens, someone found a way to go beyond.




Posted by Ed Cotton It appears there’s no shortage of brands trying to grasp the concept of Web 2.0, but do they know what they are doing?

Bruce Nussbaum in a post for Business Week, believes clients can longer trust big ad agencies, because they are pushing them “lemming like” into the 2.0 world, without first understanding consumer needs.

“I've been spending much time with ad agencies and focus groups lately and can only conclude that--with some exceptions--they are mostly clueless. Three years ago they had a traditional knowledge about consumers but didn't know much about social networking and web 2.0 technology. Today, most of them don't know about consumers and don't know much about social networking and web 2.0 technology either. Mainstream ad agencies have one refrain--one message to their corporate clients--do social networking, do social networking, do social networking.”

However, it’s not just agencies that are rushing, everyone is and agencies are being dragged along in the wake.

Here’s a sampling of some of the headlines from the last month.

Media:

The BBC files reports on YouTube for the recent elections in Turkey

Sony launches Crackle to pioneer a new studio model

Nokia purchases social networking site Twango

Brands:

Some efforts might be agency induced, but it looks like most of these were client driven.

Finish Line launches its own social networking site

HP launches a back to school campaign with ads on YouTube and 80 social networking and web sites

Jeep launches the Havefunoutthere.com social network

Although I agree with Bruce that agencies need to inform their clients about what’s going on before rushing into the fray, but this is hard to do, there’s an unstoppable force behind this “meme”.

As Bruce suggests, agencies should spend more time understanding the consumer and need to do more than focus groups to get there.

However, the challenge with all this is to gain enough insight to create content that's compelling enough to ATTRACT and KEEP people’s attention.

As always, this is a massive creative challenge that needs to be fuelled by insight, imagination and intuition and that’s why Bruce is right, compelling experiences won’t happen by simply re-creating what exist.

This is no easy task as the very nature of brands and brand communication is in a state of flux, it doesn’t matter if you are MySpace or Buick.

The acuteness of the problem is neatly expressed in this quote from an article published in the Times (London) on July 3rd.

“Social networks are spawning a generation of Internet tarts, research suggests: online consumers with little brand loyalty and no qualms about keeping several sites on the go at once.

Users of social networking sites such as MySpace and Facebook are “chronically unfaithful”, a survey by Parks Associates, the analysts, has found. Half of users regularly use more than one site, most of which are free. One in six actively uses three or more.

This phenomenon of “network promiscuity” extends across web commerce. Analysts say that it is symptomatic of a new consumer scepticism over traditional branding.”

How does an old-school brand change it's spots and adapt to the new environment?

It appears that many brand efforts are Web 2.0 in theory, but not in practice, because it's so hard for brands to get away from the "command and control" model.

Brands seem so enamored their own self importance and insist on building social network destinations, but is that what consumers want?

We should hire some ethnographers to find out.



Posted by Ed Cotton